When you hear the words model or athlete what embodiment comes to mind? Do you see a beautiful, young and thin woman? Do you picture a strong, tall and built man? What if the model or athlete that you just portrayed in your mind was the polar opposite of what you just imagined. Would you still consider them a model or an athlete? My readings this week pertained to this issue.
According to The DailyMail, two weeks ago Paola Torrente, a twenty-two year old model competed for the title of Miss Italy 2016. However Paola was different in the eyes of the beauty pageant world. She is known as the term “plus size” in the beauty industry. Despite of all the support she had Torrente didn’t win the title of Miss Italy. She did however win second place to which she responded “Despite being the runner up I still feel like a winner!” In spite of all of the positive support surrounding Torrente, for portraying a more realistic body frame there were others who thought differently. One of them being a forty year old Croation model Nina Moric, who is only known for her appearance in a three minute music video. Nina wrote several negative comments on her Instagram page concerning with Paola’s second place win. In her comments she mentions that the only reason Torrente was able to obtain second place was out of political correctness. She goes on to say, “You have created organisations to defend people with too much flesh,” and “You have arrived to the point where we chose a Miss Italy who is too fat – and all in the name of sensitivity and acceptance of others.” Nina is not the only person who had theses thoughts. The mother of the third place winner of the completion said that Paola had no business competing in the mainstream event. She said that Paola being a size fourteen should have opted for a plus size beauty competition. To be honest when I look at Torrente’s picture I dont see “plus size” at all. This however does not take away from the fact that many people out there still associate the word beauty with size and even more sadly beauty with color.
When I hear the words beauty image my mind tends to correlate it with the word women. That is why this week I tried to find articles on body image that featured men as the main subject. Both Prince Fielder (baseball player) and Ben Cohen (rugby player) are male athletes who have been body shamed by the media and society. Prince Fielder was featured on ESPN’S Body Image issue. Once the magazine cover was released Fielder encountered many online trolls and negative body image comments. On a more positive note the article goes on to say that “Athletes’ bodies, just like those of us mere mortals, come in all shapes and sizes, and they can all be magnificent in their own ways.” When Ben Cohen was body shamed he was already retired. Pictures were released by the media of a shirtless Ben on vacation in Miami. It wasn’t long before people on social media started attacking Cohen for having put on a few extra pounds. In the article body confidence blogger Leyah Shanks says “There can be a tendency to forget or overlook how much of a problem negative body image in men exists and how it impacts lives. This article is feeding the incorrect idea that one can only be happy with one’s body when it is in said ‘perfect’ condition.”
The beauty and body standards that men and women are subjected on daily basis is to say the least very frightening. I believe that the way someone looks on the outside does not correlate with their capabilities to do anything and everything. Paola Torrente, Prince Fielder and Ben Cohen are all successful people who didn’t let their “thickness” prevent them form becoming winners.
https://thinkprogress.org/prince-fielder-and-the-beauty-of-espns-body-issue-5225d036b80b#.pxx8uossf