On size zero expectations

In The Chicago Tribune, Anne Ream writes about downsizing women--in every way possible:

"What is going on here? It's bad enough that our dress sizes are shrinking to 0, but so too is our common sense and our understanding of health, wellness and lasting beauty. Most distressingly, our ambitions are shrinking as well.

"It sometimes seems that we like our women small, literally and  figuratively.

"We tell girls that they can be anything, while showing them -- through airbrushed ads and glossy media images -- that their first order of business is to be beautiful. We celebrate Grrl Power while marketing "Property Of My Boyfriend" T-shirts. ...

"The sad thing is that many of us have bought into that twisted logic. Instead of demanding that designers create fashion that fits real women, we try to refashion our bodies to fit today's most unforgiving styles. ...

"The shrinking goals are another matter, a far more baffling one. ..."

Comments

[Helen K]

We need to start talking about why we are asking men to get bolder and telling women - literally and figuratively - to shrink. By the way, the author of "The Incredible Shrinking Woman" article in the Chicago Tribune -- Anne Ream -- is also the founder of The Voices and Faces Project, which deals with sexual violence. Which is a reminder that all of these forms of oppression -the unfair female body ideal, violence against women, race, class -- are really linked.