Size matters - Milan takes action through bilboards

Yes, the pictures of Isabelle Caro are shocking, but since our visual culture encourages body hatred, it's time to respond to that in a visual medium.
Article by AnyBody member Susie Orbach
The Guardian September 27, 2007

I am surprised to read that colleagues working with girls and women with eating and body difficulties have responded negatively to the pictures of Isabelle Caro, the 27-year-old actress who weighs just 31 kilograms, displayed on billboards across Italy.

The startling and disturbing images are part of a campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of going on hunger strike. She's been on one since she was 12. The campaign, shot by Oliviero Toscani who has shocked the world before with his provocative campaigns for Benetton, is supported by the fashion industry in Italy and has been mounted to coincide with Milan fashion week. The industry has become worried, and for good reason, that they are inadvertently promoting body hatred in girls and women.

My colleagues are concerned that the Toscani pictures will be aspirational. They are certainly correct that visual culture is reconstructing our relationship to the body. We can't but help look at ourselves from the outside to see whether our bodies sufficiently reflect an acceptable version of the 5,000 digitally enhanced images that are beamed at us per week. This is particularly the case for girls and young women and my colleagues worry that girls, perhaps those who are already hooked into the proAna sites will chase the elusive dream to fit in through acquiring a diminished body.

If visual culture can invoke a feeling that we need to be thin, perhaps the pictures of Isabelle Caro will become glamorised in such a way that they invite us to mimic her. It's possible but I doubt it. I think we are not yet inured to the horror they portray. We can still see them. It takes more than one or two images to change our visual landscape and I think they will become a rallying point for campaigners against the body hatred which eats into so many of our children's childhoods, adolescence and young adulthood.

We need to address the problem visually because it has in large part created visually. Yes, eating problems start in the home, sometimes unwittingly passed on by mums and siblings who have body anxieties of their own which in turn owe much to the ubiquity of art-directed visual culture. Yes, anorexia and the starvation that goes with it have to be addressed emotionally and sometimes medically, but if we fail to challenge worship of just one body type, we will miss an important dimension to transform the problem.

Bodies today are rarely where we live from. They become our production. Our personal statement about who we are. We work on them. We spend a fortune on them. We decorate, transform and manipulate them. Cosmetic surgery is worth $14bn this year, and expected to increase by a $1bn for next. The number of girls and women (and increasingly men) who suffer with severe eating and body difficulties, sometimes obvious like bulimia and obesity, sometimes hidden in bulimia or binge eating, is rising and reaching into earlier and earlier age groups.

We do need to campaign. And at the visual level - which is where this campaign is located. Shocking images are one way, pictures of women of different sizes, as in the Dove campaign, and the deconstructing of the beauty industry through videos are others. We need the best our art directors can do to democratise our visual field so that all of our beauty and variety is included. We need to face the public health emergency that is body hatred (in all its manifestations from obesity to anorexia) and transform the role of visual culture so that it becomes part of the solution and not the problem.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/susie_orbach/2007/09/size_matters_1.html

Comments

[Susan Gutwill]

It is so good to read this truth and the phot is startling, a profound statement. In solidarity Susan

[Mary E.]

Unfortunatly, the campaign seems to have some problems now.
The Italien media is making Isabelle Caro a celebrity herself, and critical voices, say that she enjoys her fame, and didn't participated in the campaign because she wants to warn young women, but because she wanted to, in a grotesque manner, wanted to show her body to the world.

Mary

[Miss]

Photos are scaring... But I'm sure they are the best way to show the problem visually. I myself had never had any diets, I become annoyed... When I wanna lose some weight I go to gym or take to jogging and exercising. How about promoting healthy weight?

[dropneus]

damn those people are fucking frezy thin!
ok, being fat is awful but this is worse

[Laneo]

Bravo! Someone has to demand and anwer to the question "Who is cooking our idea of beaty for us and why!" What could be more demented than forcing your body to devour itself?!

[NflJerseyOnline]

Cheap football jerseys, NBA jerseys advertising the position is strictly prohibited to relax! In the current economic downturn, spending, such as general as the United States Football League NBA way. Recently, NBA jerseys advertising the position is strictly prohibited loose, will allow the Union to sell the team next season sportswear chest ads. But today, the Orlando Magic. Orlando Magic Chief Operating Officer Eric Martins, local time Wednesday, said the team will the players to a pre-job training per week, the ads. Martins train service, advertising on the major sources of income group, while over time, cheap football jerseys are the most valuable in the game, also on the shirt will no longer be a dream, but do not make a decision. Wellcome to our site:
http://www.nfljerseyonline.com/

[NflJerseyOnline]

Attention!Kinds of jerseys,beautiful bags and shoes provided for you online. With extremely competitive prices, we sell only quality products.We bring you the best quality products in the market today. And our prices are the best in this industry, we welcome our customers to look around and compare our prices with local dealers and other online vendors. Shopping with us can save you a lot of money, and we offer great discounts on multiple item purchase,you will save even more. site:
http://www.nfljerseyonline.com
http://www.bagonhand.com
http://www.sportshoes007.com

[jessie]

I think she is way too thin, which might mislead us....
http://www.astrabeds.com/leggett-and-platt-prodigy-adjustable-bed

[WhiteMelon]

What I like the most about them is they always looks energic. Plenty of spirit. I always remember that in my life. http://www.jihoy.com/

[mikecunzha]

The hardest things if you want to be a good politician is still to keep you promise and try to make it come true between so many temptation that you have around you. You know, such as monry politics etc http://www.esleepmasters.com/Bathroom_Vanities_s/2305.htm

[vc]

YUM YUM YUMMY – Love those brushes, thank you so much guys (again) http://www.uggsshoe.net/

[BlackWings]

This is a good resolution. And if you need help in this, you will get a lot of help too. People will have concern bout this and they only need someone or a good organization in this. http://www.factorgaming.com/gaming_laptops

[LisaHayne]

You can find java application in every gadget that you have. But cellphones is a good gadgets for java to put their application. Such as game or antivirus for your cellphones. They have a good skill in that.
http://www.bluebarngraphics.com/

[deal or no deal]

All the things that they have in here really good to discuss. I mean, there must be a lot of your competitors consider this is the chance for them to ask you to become their partner in this business.

http://www.divertinia.com/dond.php

[Samantha Hayes]

Isabelle Caro was the face of aneroxia. How so sad that she died young and without recovering from this dreadful disease. I sincerely hope that Isabelle Caro's initiavive in doing the bill board ad helped some women and girls see the harsh reality of this disease.

I watched some videos of the interviews she did after that bill board picture, and couldn't help but feel so sad. May her sould rest in peace.

This disease has to be cured - and it starts with the fashion industry stopping to use size zero model, because these create the impression that super-thin is beautiful.

http://www.wordsofvalue.com/writersforhire
http://www.wordsofvalue.com/professional-writing-services

[jisha]

Don't worry about the possible outcome. They are doing great so far, so just expect to see the results soon.


http://www.factorgaming.com/

[Colored Coffee Mugs]

I have my own method to get out of the depression quickly. If I already feel depressed, I just call my friends and ask them to hang out together. Usually they will cheer me up and soon I'll forget my problems. It helps me a lot. http://www.mapleleafpromotions.com/Coloured-Ceramic-Cups.html

[demian]

I hope this girl's tragic death serves as a stark reminder to the people that praise extreme thin-ness and anorexia that being this way is dangerous and that it IS an illness that people need help to overcome in the same way that obesity is.

http://www.btscene.eu/

[Outlook Online Training]

Thanks for this site..it really helped me a lot and will let me learn a lot