Figuring out the beauty ...

It was in the month of September that the issue of skinny models first cropped up. As an Indian, who is brought on the ‘Aestheticism’ of Kamasutra, I always abhored these models. I always liked the models who have on their body right curves at the right place. That’s why when a buxom actress like Kate Winslet speaks against such models, it must assume some significance.
Oscar-nominated Kate Winslet has said that she refused to have magazines in her house because she was worried about her six-year-old daughter Mia reading them.‘’It’s only a matter of time before she becomes aware of it and it frightens the life out of me,’’ she told the BBC at the weekend.Winslet is not the only one to worry about the dietary craziness of teen girls who want to make it big in modelling.
Sometime ago, the mother of a Brazilian fashion model who died from complications of anorexia made an emotional appeal for parents to take better care of aspiring young models. The death of Ana Carolina Reston (21) followed the death in August of Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos of heart failure during a fashion show in Montevideo. Reston died in November from a generalised infection caused by anorexia, an eating disorder in which sufferers obsessively deprive themselves of food in pursuit of an ultra-slim look. Reston weighed only 40 kg and was about 5 feet 8 inches tall.
"Take care of your children ... no money is worth the life of your child, not even the most famous (fashion) brand is worth this," Miriam, mother of Ana Carolina Reston told to a Brazillian newspaper. She said her daughter had been trying to help her family with the money she made as a model. Miriam spoke on national television and to local media to highlight the tragedy. She said she had pleaded with her daughter to eat more and to see a doctor.
Spain barred models below a certain weight from a September fashion show in Madrid. Italian government and its fashion chiefs are working on a manifesto to crack down on the use of ultra-thin teenagers on the catwalk.Britain’s culture minister called for ‘’stick-thin’’ models to be banned from the catwalk during London Fashion Week and the Indian health minister has warned that the number of young girls ‘starving’ themselves to be thin is ‘rocketing’. But these attempte bore no apparent fruits . The issye remains hanged even today even so it was two months ago.This debate is going for a long time and the fashion world is divided over the issue, with many designers and models shrugging off concerns that ultra-thin models may encourage eating disorders in girls and young women.
Joining Winslet in this issue is Billie Piper, who starred in the hit British television series Doctor Who. ‘’What I resent is that there is an image of perfection that is getting thinner and thinner.’’ Piper has said. She also said that her 13-year-old sister was already worried about her figure.‘’I think the whole size zero debate is disgusting,’’ she said in the upcoming edition of Glamour magazine, referring to the clothes size for the very thin.
Why aspiring models take to starving themselves is an open question. It is true that a large chunk of the media, especially ad-world gives preference to ultra-thin models, but anyone with a sense would wouch that nothing proves a treat to the eye than a well bestowed human figure. A well sized woman’s body tops the list of the beatiful sights. If commercialization snatches, or tries to santch away this age old treat of the mankind, it is bound to fail. But the success hungry models fall prey to false notions and instead of a bountiful figure, ‘Round Figure’ assumes more importance for them.
This brings to anvil a major question : Do we succumb to the lure and hype created by commercial mediamen, who have access to the instruments that create an unnecessary hype around the people who deserve least. Do we need someone to tell us who or what looks beautiful? These skinny models apart, even 36-24-36 type standardizaiton of the beautiful women that has been kinda accepted by all and sundry all over the world appears to be one more way of the American way of categorization.
It is heartning to see that eminent women of all types are coming forward to protest against this categorization. Beauty, as we see it, must come out of the figures.