Are you talking?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070124/...shion_campaign
MADRID, Spain - Spain's government has reached an agreement with major fashion designers, including the owner of the Zara chain, to standardize women's clothing sizes with the aim of promoting a healthier image.
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Designers such as Cortefiel, Mango, El Corte Ingles and Inditex, which owns Zara, agreed to take part in the program, which was announced Tuesday.
The program, designed by the Health Ministry, will also prevent those companies from using window displays featuring clothes smaller than a European size 38 (10 in Britain, 8 in the United States). They will have five years to phase in the change.
"It is not reasonable for a modern and advanced society to establish stereotypes of beauty that are far removed from the social reality of a community. It is everyone's commitment that beauty and health go hand in hand," Health Minister Elena Salgado said at a signing ceremony Tuesday.
The agreement follows last year's unprecedented decision by Spain's main fashion show, Madrid's Pasarela Cibeles, to ban some models from the catwalk on grounds they were too thin, saying this looked encouraged eating disorders among young people.
The Health Ministry's program aims to end a situation in which a woman who buys a size 40 dress from one designer may not fit in a size 40 garment from another designer. The ministry said the differences sometimes lead women to feel compelled to lose weight.
Designers should be encouraged to "promote a healthy physical image that conforms with the reality of the Spanish population," the ministry said in a statement.
The agreement also stipulates that European size 46 no longer be specifically labeled as a larger size.
As part of the effort to standardize sizes, the ministry plans to measure 8,500 Spanish girls and women between the ages of 12 and 70 to determine the true shapes of Spanish women's bodies.
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Ok... I think making the sizes standard is fine... It's annoying sometimes to grab your "size" and find it's too big or too small... But is it really that big of a deal? I think people are taking this whole thing WAY to far.
Quote:
| The program, designed by the Health Ministry, will also prevent those companies from using window displays featuring clothes smaller than a European size 38 (10 in Britain, 8 in the United States). They will have five years to phase in the change. |
Is this really necessary? Study finds window displays contribute to anarexia in women! Tune in at 6 on Channel 5! I mean c'mon, it's a doll. Everyone on this board agreed that Barbie with her unrealistic proportions had zero effect on their self image. Manequins are just life size barbies. I've never once looked at a manequin and been like OMG she's so skinny! I know in wet seal we put size 4's on our manequins because the clothing had to get around the hips on the doll. When did size 4 suddenly promote anarexia? Granted I'm sure some are slimmer, but whats the big deal? It's just a doll...
Quote:
| "It is not reasonable for a modern and advanced society to establish stereotypes of beauty that are far removed from the social reality of a community. |
So far removed? Maybe if the "modern and advanced societies" weren't statistically obese, the social realities of the community wouldn't see a manequin as overly skinnny.
Quote:
| The Health Ministry's program aims to end a situation in which a woman who buys a size 40 dress from one designer may not fit in a size 40 garment from another designer. The ministry said the differences sometimes lead women to feel compelled to lose weight. |
Are you talking? So what happens when they standardize the size and Ms. Size 40, is now like a "standard" size 45?
Quote:
| The agreement also stipulates that European size 46 no longer be specifically labeled as a larger size. |
Oh, heaven forbid a size 46 not be "normal" Just because everyone is fat, doesn't suddenly make a large size a regular. It's like when mydonalds stopped offering Small fries, and only had Regular, Large, and Supersize. Ordernig a regular isn't suddenly ordering a small size. It's still just as big as before. People just feel better because their ordering the, "Smallest size avail."
Quote:
| As part of the effort to standardize sizes, the ministry plans to measure 8,500 Spanish girls and women between the ages of 12 and 70 to determine the true shapes of Spanish women's bodies. |
Latin and Hispanic women are on average, overweight. Just cuz the "true shape" of a culture's body is obese, shouldn't make it acceptable.
http://www.dhs.ca.gov/cdic/copi/html/problem.htm
Body Mass Index by Race/Ethnicity in California Race/Ethnicity Body Mass Index Over 25.0
Source: California Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey, 2004
African American 70.4%
Latino/Hispanic 69.6%
Other 40.4%
White 53%
Yeh the survey was in 2004 and in America, but considering obesity trends, more people are probably obese now, than 3 years ago. And this survey if probably reflective of other developed nations, where healthy food is expensive, and food thats bad for you, is cheap.
Just because populations are obese, shouldn't make it suddenly acceptable to be obese. Movements like these are so stupid. And just a reflection of how fat modern culture is getting.
