Gisele Speaks!

Uber-model(and one of my favorite models) Gisele Bundchen spoke out on the issue of anorexia last Friday, stating that weak families are to blame for anorexia, not the fashion industry. Yep, you heard me right, she points out that it's the weak families that should be held responsible for eating disorders as opposed to the oft criticized fashion industry that notoriously promotes waifish silhouettes. In last Friday's edition of Brazil's O Globo newspaper, she states, "I never suffered from this problem (anorexia) because I had a very strong family base. Parents are responsible, not the fashion industry." Up for until now, all I've heard was that it was time that the fashion industry took some responsibility in this arena. It's good that finally someone within the industry itself spoke out on this, usually to refute the critics who blame the fashion industry unfortunately, but this time it's someone who points out that while thin is the norm in the industry, however, that doesn't mean that the industry should take all of the blame. Something tells me that Gisele does know something about eating disorders, but she also points out that she never had that problem due to her very strong family base, imo.

Gisele states that there are people who were naturally born with the right genes, but she also states that she was teased for being skinny by other kids when she was a child. Once she started to work in the fashion industry, she says that she finally felt accepted, but she also never felt lonely because she always relied on her family.

She DOES raise a good point that the blame should NOT fall entirely on the industry itself, but that both parents and models individually should also be responsible. Now, I'm really starting to advocate that the industry should educate not only models, but designers as well about this issue. Yet there should also be some requirements much like the ones adopted by Brazil, England(London), Spain(Madrid), and Milan here in NYC.

Yet the one thing that pisses me off to no end that there are so many people in the industry who completely deny that anorexia is a problem amongst the models, let alone the fact that it even exists within the industry. One such person(and one of my favorites as well as a favorite designer), Karl Lagerfeld, denies that anorexia is even a problem within the industry's models, stating that "We don't see anorexic(girls). The girls are skinny. They have skinny bones." Okay, Karl, I love ya to death, but I disagree with you on that. First off, there's no such thing as skinny bones...that's like me stating that I'm not overweight; I have big bones(which has been disproven since there's also no such thing as being big boned). Yea, I don't deny that there are some models who are naturally skinny, but if I were you, I'd keep an eye out for those models who have unusually protuding ribs and hipbones, chances are that they may be anorexic.

What do you all think?



Source: Us Magazine, http://usmagazine.cm/gisele_bundchen_0