Beauty and the Body Beast

Dove may have been on to something when it introduced its "Campaign For Real Beauty" back in 2004. The commercial titled, "Onslaught", is an especially striking one to me. It shows a young girl starring off into the street, then all of a sudden hundreds of ads are flashed before her (and thus our) eyes. These images showcase just how many ads we are bombarded with, and the real message we are sending to those young impressionable minds; be beautiful, be skinny, and in turn be happy. Well, Spain has had enough.

Spain is about to pass a law that will ban marketers from advertising certain beauty products and services "that encourage the cult of body" on TV before 10 p.m. The beauty and hygiene segment of advertisements spent a whopping $708 million in airtime in 2008, according to Advertisement Age. Spain also has banned runway models with a BMI (body mass index) lower than 18. Even further then banning ads and waif like models, Spain is doing a study to calculate the average size female body in Spain and creating mannequins who represent those dimensions.

So what effect will this have on youth as well as the advertising and fashion industry? Are we finally to a point that we are tired of the pressures to have to be perfect, to not age, to not eat? I think we are now left wondering what body image do we look to now? We are tired of the over processed, fake, bean pole, but we are also growing tired of the over indulging, overweight community we have spawned as well. The answer seems obvious to me. Showcase natural people who live HEALTHY lifestyles.

Highlight naturally beautiful women who have aged and are still beautiful, women who range in all body shapes, women who can go grab a cheeseburger but at the same time understands that leading a balanced healthy life means getting to the gym that week if they do devour a cheeseburger or slice of pizza every now and then.

I'm happy to see people, companies, and governments taking a stand against both ends of the unhealthy lifestyles spectrum, but we need to do more than talk about it and take further action. After hearing that model Kate Moss has been voted Teenagers' Top Role Model in a new London poll, (Sixty-eight percent of the 1,032 16-year-olds, who were quizzed, chose the supermodel in the intotheblue.co.uk poll) I look forward to the day when our youth can look to a healthy, beautiful and intelligent role model such as; Michelle Obama, Princess Diana, Natalie Portman or Queen Latifah.