Unattainable Beauty Standards by Nisha Thomas

What happens when the level of beauty becomes so unattainable that not even a human can fit into the criteria?
“H&M has been sticking real models’ heads on computer generated bodies”, as stated in the Huffington Post on December 5, 2011.
That’s what happens.
In a world where women and girls are constantly being told they are not good enough, it is no surprise that everyone finds themselves landing short. Airbrushing was just the beginning, which has already gotten extremely out of hand. It is absolutely unrealistic for women to even imagine that it is physically possible for their head to be wider than their hips. Those are the kind of images that are circulating and presenting today’s societal standard.
What did H&M have to say?
When the use of fake bodies began to circulate, H&M came to their defence saying that this action was taken “to show off their clothes”! Show off clothes that will not look like that on the average consumer? If the tactic was to be realistic, why not have had a real person model the clothing so consumers have an idea of what the clothes will actually look like on them? The image below is computer generated body with real models’ heads placed on it.



“Even the models we see in magazines wish they could look like their own images.”
― Cheri K. Erdman.
The illusion of the “perfect, flawless body” is advancing to even greater extremes now. Check out this video about Photoshop (I promise, it is three minutes that you will not regret!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_vVUIYOmJM
What are the extreme lengths that corporations and the media are willing to go to? Not only women, but everyone, needs to take back the definition of beauty. The Norweigan Broadcasting Corporation, who were the ones that initially discovered this, emphasize that “this illustrates very well the sky-high aesthetic demands placed on the female body”. It is difficult to simply ignore the constant bombardment of these images, but one of the driving forces comes from confidence in oneself and one’s own body.
“Healthy emotions come in all sizes. Healthy minds come in all sizes. And healthy bodies come in all sizes.”
― Cheri K. Erdman