Syntagma Digital
LifeTimes
Fifty Something Women

Real Women, Real Beauty - It’s Time

Now that another model has died of complications of anorexia, the media are abuzz again with tragic tales of starvation diets and lots of head shaking.

Ana Carolina Reston, was a beautiful 21-year-old with dark hair and big eyes. She was 5′8″ tall and weighed only 88 pounds. The young model was trying to earn money to help her family in Brazil.

Anna

Ana Carolina Reston

In August, Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos died of heart failure at a fashion show. She had been starving herself - trying to be thin enough.

Then in September, a furor in the fashion world began when prior to a fashion show in Spain, officials in Madrid set a guideline BMI(body mass index) for models who would appear on the runway. Models with a BMI below 18 were banned from the show. A BMI of 18 is considered underweight. A BMI of 15 is considered to be starvation level. Ana Carolina Reston’s BMI was 13.5.

These girls’ deaths are tragic, but perhaps the media attention they receive is a warning that the fashion industry will finally heed.

By contrast, Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty sets a standard for beauty that is realistic and attainable. The focus of the campaign is that real women come in all shapes and sizes. The message: Be happy with who you are.

In June, Linda Ellerbee, 62-year-old journalist, best-selling author and television producer was the recipient of the 2006 Dove Real Beauty Award.

Linda

Linda Ellerbee

Dove is working to help change our perceptions of beauty, to encompass all that a woman is and to reveal the distortion and deception in the images of beauty the media churns out.

Watch Dove’s “Evolution of Beauty” video.

Do you have a view? 2 Comments