Blog Every Day in January: My Close Encounter with the Fashion Industry, and Mindy Kaling

(Did you read that title as I also had a close encounter with Mindy Kaling? Because unfortunately I didn't! Love my Mindy Project Tuesday nights.)

Today's topic is about a response to an article. This isn't one specific article so much as it is something that has popping up and drawing my attention.

Once (actually....twice) upon a time, I modeled in a fashion show. The only reason I ended up in that situation is because my mom is a hair stylist, and she did hair for runway shows for awhile. This particular show was a hair contest/ fashion show. So one cold winter break day, my mom and I drove to downtown Chicago so the designer and his assistant could measure me and get me in a dress.

As soon as I arrived, I felt entirely out of place. There were other models there. Ford models, to be exact. So they were the real deal. And there I was, lacking any makeup, feeling pretty self-conscious in my giant sweater.

This gorgeous, slender Asian woman walks in, takes one look at me and says "You're skinny. But I don't know if we have anything to big enough to fit you." Then another girl, one of my mom's clients, walks in. She was going to do a Phantom of the Opera dance number during the show. The woman takes a look at her and says "You are not skinny."

Just like that. No emotion. The girl wasn't offended (outwardly) and she had her own dress she could wear, but it was very strange. That was the only time I ever felt like a plastic object under inspection. And I hated it.

I actually tripped on that dress and ripped it later...oops....(My mom won the hair contest!)

Then there were those other girls, who put their bodies on display like that every single week. They were just canvases for designers to put their garments on, and they had to fit the proper mold. Granted, that is the life they chose. But they did not seem happy. I don't know that for sure, but they all seemed so tense and wary of one another.

There was one girl I had been talking with while I ate my lunch, so I offered her one of my fries. Her eyes got wide and she actually said, "You let yourself eat that stuff?" I didn't know how to respond to that one. It's always weird when people judge your eating habits. I ate all the fries to prove a point. I don't eat french fries every day, but I'm also not married to a lifetime of kale.

So that brings me back to the article I want to comment on, which is here.

If you haven't seen what all the fuss is about, Elle magazine is featuring four different February covers. Each cover features a woman in television. The other covers are Amy Poehler, Zooey Deschanel and Allison Williams. Notice anything?

Via

All of these photos are gorgeous, but Mindy's is totally out of place. It doesn't seem like they chose to crop her body out of the shop and make it black and white on purpose. To me, it looks like an afterthought, and it doesn't flow with the other covers. The photo drains her of her shape and skin tone, and it lacks energy compared to the other three. 

Obviously, Elle representatives have not said "Mindy wears a size 8 so we couldn't show her body," but that's definitely what this looks like. I am not a fan of fashion magazines, personally. Some of the Elle articles are beautifully written, but the materialism and focus on the physical tend to bother me after awhile.

Growing up with a mother who was so immersed in the world of beauty and fashion, I got to see a lot of the ugly truth in that industry. A close friend of mine was also a model. It's not about eating well to promote health and get adequate exercise to keep your body energized. It's about minimizing and wasting away. 

To be honest with you, I'm not even impressed with the plus-size models that are more popular than ever (see article here.) First of all, even they are expected to shrink down. "Plus size" now is a size 10 or 12. And I'm still bothered because it's ALL about the body. "Embrace your curves like a real woman!"

Also, can we please stop using the phrase "real woman"? Being shaped like a beanpole doesn't make you some sort of Pinocchio woman. Lacking curves does not make you a "fake woman." Neither does being a size 6, 12, or 22. 

Look, health is important. But everyone is healthy at a different size, and skinny does not automatically equal healthy. 

Do appearances matter? Yes. We are visual, and we draw cues from people we don't know based on their appearance. But they are not everything. 

It gets exhausting when major industries prey on women's insecurities to make money, and when people like Mindy Kaling and Jennifer Lawrence are cropped or morphed into some tinier version of themselves because they don't fit into the Hollywood box. None of us are dolls, and the outside is just the beginning of everything we are. What a shame it is to waste such a huge percentage of our lives trying to change the outside to what the world wants, instead of focusing on the things that really matter.