I’m in a Holiday Inn Express in Roseville, California, a few miles outside of Sacramento. It’s almost 11:00PM, and I’m getting up in five hours to get myself to Sacramento airport, catch the first flight down to Burbank, and get to my 9:00AM conference time at Pasadena City College. I got three hours of sleep last night and three hours the night before. I’ll be catching up this weekend!
I’ve been up here for the last 36 hours to participate in the exciting launch of Healthy is the New Skinny, the latest initiative to take on the enduring (and worsening) problem of young women’s poor self-image. What makes HITNS unusual is that it’s a program that comes from within the modeling industry itself, growing out of a brand-new Southern California agency, Natural Models LA. The first program to come out of Natural Models and HITNS is the Perfectly Unperfected Project (PUP), which carries to high school students a powerful and inspirational message of hope, transformation, and practical tools for combatting the culture of destructive perfectionism.
I am a co-founder and co-director of PUP, and also serve as a professional consultant to both Natural Models and HITNS.
One of the co-owners of Natural Models, Katie Halchishick (herself a successful plus-sized model) was contacted a few months ago by a student at Placer High School in Auburn, California. This student, Kristin Close, wanted to bring Katie to come and talk about her experiences as a model and as an advocate for body acceptance. Katie, her boyfriend and business partner Brad, and I were working on other projects together, and we realized that the Placer invitation represented an opportunity to design a multi-media, multi-platform program to reach out to young people — but to do it from within an industry that holds such great sway over their lives. From that, PUP was born.
Today, our team of 18 — models, consultants, musicians — held two assemblies on the Placer High campus. We did separate presentations for the boys and for the girls, sharing with them stories and images of strength and hope and offering them a “counter-story.” Counter-stories are stories that run against the grain of pop culture and received wisdom; our chief counter-story is not just that “healthy is the new skinny”, but that with effort and partnership and courage, we can fight against oppressive perfectionism and the tyranny of unattainable thinness. Katie and Bradford shared their stories and their wisdom, as did a wonderfully talented plus-size model (and mother of two) from Seattle, Angela Jones. I served as emcee of the event, framing what was happening for the two enthusiastic (indeed exuberant) audiences, and other models from Natural Models interacted with the Hillmen (Placer’s mascot here in the Sierra foothills), answering questions and engaging with the students. A great new group — Coleman and Chris, whose first record is on its way out in 2011 — performed. Tears, cheers, and all that you would expect.
I’ll have more to say about Healthy is the New Skinny and the Perfectly Unperfected Project in the near future. For now, please check out our websites, and if you’re interested in what we’re up to, follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. And if you want to see reactions from some of the Placer students, check out this Twitter hashtag: #healthynewskinny.
It’s a big week for high schools: tomorrow afternoon at 3:00PM, I’m talking about young women, perfectionism, and body image at Arcadia High School.
This is propaganda in a good cause, but I wonder if an even better cause would be to try to discourage young people from being influenced by models and fashion generally. If one person is adulated for looking good (even if the criterion isn’t thinness) it still makes others feel bad for not meeting whatever criterion they think is being applied.
I know, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. And the chances of diverting young women from an interest in fashion (from thinking fashion is VITAL, even) are just about zero. And we could try to encourage what’s reasonably benign rather than what’s truly awful. But still–what’s the underlying drive in all of this?
This looks awesome. Bringing it to Pasadena?
John, the underlying drive is transforming young women’s self-image. The modeling and fashion industries can be part of the problem, or part of the solution. Some may wish for a world where there fashion and beauty don’t hold the same sway over the young that they do, and I’m sympathetic to that. But we also need to engage young people “where they’re at” with images and messages that will resonate with them. Telling young people not to care about appearance simply doesn’t work — fighting to make appearance just a little less all-important to success, and fighting to broaden the spectrum of what is considered beautiful, that’s what works.
Sorry, I was careless there. Yes, the motivation of HITNS is obvious. But what I meant to say was that I wonder just what makes issues of appearance and especially conformity with fashion so important to young women. It’s easy to say “They’ve internalized the need to look attractive to men” but I think it goes a long way beyond that–young men aren’t apt to be fussy about details of women’s appearance, which ought to be reassuring to women but somehow isn’t! It seems there are very few women, certainly not young ones, who are totally casual about how they look. And for some, it’s an obsession. But if the issue is compulsive thinness, that’s obviously bad.
Back when our ancestors roamed the frozen steppes, some people needed to be thin in order to catch up with the mammoth herds. But when famine came, there needed to be a few plump people who had a chance to survive and rebuild the tribe. So we vary.
While this sounds awesome, I do still cringe every time I see the phrase “plus-size models†— since many (most?) of the models described that way aren’t even above average weight (or at least don’t appear to be). While of course it’s intended to make the point “even if you’re plus-size, you can still look greatâ€, I’ve seen it come across to at least a couple of female friends (and ok, cards on the table, it has the same effect on me) of “you may have thought you were average, but actually you look even bigger than the plus-size models!â€â€¦ and hence by everything we’ve been trained to think, “…so you’re fat and unattractiveâ€. I wish the catchy phrase were something more like “normal-size modelsâ€, or, I don’t know, some more sexy-sounding way of saying that. Something making the point that because they’re less emaciated than most models, they’re actually pretty damn normal.
I guess there are two main points people try to make — that being above average weight/slimness/fatness is not a bad thing, and that the average weight is considerably more the fashion industry would have it appear. And the phrase “plus-size modelsâ€, as it’s often used, supports the first at the expense of the second.
…but, sorry, that’s all just the knee-jerk sensitivity I have about one phrase you used a couple of times, and some similar phrasings that get used in this area. I love the phrasing around the new initiatives: emphasising healthiness, making it clear that healthy is not generally the same as skinny, and that having a life is both healthier and sexier than obsessive perfection. Here’s hoping it thrives, and maybe even goes big!
I absolutely agree that the term “plus” is problematic. Definitely have some ideas about where to go with that.
I shared Peter’s cringe. Perhaps we can use ‘negative-size models’, and then just ‘models?’
Re: John | Amy Alkon has a mediocre and unhelpful article in Psychology Today (http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201010/the-truth-about-beauty) about embracing the the importance of appearance. But its thesis has enough wisdom though that its opened a new category in my thinking. We have to find a way to move past “looks shouldn’t matter” to a place where we acknowledge that appearance is a vital component of our self and our interactions with others. And that it has a role and a place where it can function with grace, justice, and meaning.
Beauty, bodies, clothing, and fashion aren’t inherently vapid or toxic. They are functioning in an incredibly toxic way in our culture right now though. How do we acknowledge the incredible violence and shame that’s flowing out of that space while moving towards authentic, honest, life-giving categories for attraction, beauty, fashion, and our own bodies?
Bingo, Tucker. Thanks for that. I’ll have more to say this week.