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- Newsgroups: soc.women
- Path: sparky!uunet!walter!att-out!cbnewsl!cbnewsk!krw
- From: krw@cbnewsk.cb.att.com (keith.r.smith)
- Subject: Re: Supermodels contribute to spiraling low self esteem?
- Organization: AT&T
- Distribution: usa
- Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 16:12:10 GMT
- Message-ID: <1992Nov16.161210.18480@cbnewsk.cb.att.com>
- References: <1992Nov13.211239.70629@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu>
- Lines: 70
-
- In article <1992Nov13.211239.70629@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu> jth4@ns1.cc.lehigh.edu (JON T. HUTCHINSON) writes:
- >In article <1dsbfhINN8hi@bigboote.WPI.EDU>, cor@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Cory Shimer) wri
- >tes:
- >>
- >>Hmm.
- >>
- >>More than likely.
- >>
- >>If someone makes you feel relatively unattractive by what they say
- >>or do, and then you happen to see some poster of some supermodel...
- >>
- >>The problem with low self esteem is that it self propagates.
- >>
- >>The less attractive you feel, the less attractive you probably become
- >>(from a personality standpoint, and perhaps from a physical standpoint
- >>if it causes you to neglect your appearance), which makes it more likely
- >>that people will do or say things that mkae you feel less attractive.
- >>
- >>The problem is that society contribumtes to this.
- >>
- >>Even if you are feeling good about yourself, some asshole
- >>can come along and start the downward spiral of self esteem.
- >>
- >>For this reason I have a small problem with the person who posted
- >>that people should just express how they feel at any given moment and not
- >>worry about hurting other people.
- >>
- >>It's not the supermodels themselves that can contribute to this, but
- >>the way society lifts them up as a comparison standard.
- >>
- >>Think twice before being an asshole, you might just be affecting
- >>someones life.
- >>
- >>---
- >>
-
- >I think supermodels are goals most women should stride for.
- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-
- I beg to differ. I believe instead, that a woman (since we are talking
- about women here, though the following could apply to human beings in
- general), if she were to choose to model herself after somebody appearance-
- wise, should look to somebody who already has the same basic attributes
- as she, but optimized. If the currently popular models tend to be long
- and slim (attributes that are pretty much "set" by one's choice of parents)
- and a given woman tends to be long and slim, then in that case a "supermodel"
- represents an achieveable body image model to that woman. If a given woman
- tends to be short and curvy (attributes that are also pretty much "set" by
- one's choice of parents), for example, then trying to emulate the look of
- one of today's "supermodels" will be the "kiss of death" for her. She would
- be setting herself up for a fall. If she were to find a woman who also
- tended to be short and curvy, but having a shaplier figure and possibly better
- grooming overall, then that, for her, would represent an achievable body-
- image-model/goal for her.
-
- It is all about being true to yourself and the type of body that _you_
- were born with.
-
- Keith
- It just so happens that this type (short and curvy) is just not represented
- in the ranks of today's "supermodels".
- >--
- >________________________________________________________________________
- >
- >Jon T. Hutchinson, Network Coordinator
- >Office of Telecommunications
- >office 215-758-5099
- >fax 215-758-6127
-
-
-