Jeans Against Mankind May 22, 2013Expert BlogsOff

My wife – the CEO of Little PINK Book – tells me that we are not doing an ample job of closing the gender gap. That companies are not helping women step in to greater roles but the way I see it, the problem starts when they step out in their jeans.
 
Sewn into them, and much of today’s fashion, are the seeds of exploitation, dehumanization and death. By the industry popularizing size zero women, fashion brands have tightened their grip on girls who think thin is beautiful. But here’s the skinny: when an obsession with being thin takes over your eating habits, thoughts, and life, it’s called an eating disorder.
 
Most recently, I was invited to the opening of an Atlanta jeans boutique featuring tight-fitting denims for women. I opened the door expecting a peek into the world of chic, but instead I found a gaggle of blonde stick figures bantering about and pulling on size zero jeans.
 
Horrified, I did some research that night and found that the fashion industry was not all bad.
 
Models with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of below 18 were banned from Madrid Fashion Week in 2006, and the Milan fashion show took the same action shortly afterward.

Italian fashion labels Prada, Versace and Armani have followed suit banning size zero models from their catwalks. And in 2007, the British Fashion Council created a task force to establish guidelines for the fashion industry urging fashion designers to use healthy models citing that up to 40 percent of models could have an eating disorder.
 
In September 2010, Victoria Beckham banned 12 models from her New York Fashion Week runway show for appearing “too skinny” in her show.
 
In March 2012, Israel passed a law stipulating that women and men hired as models must have a body mass index of at least 18.5.
According to the BBC, Israeli politician Rachel Adato, said she hoped the law would protect young people from having unrealistic ideas about their appearannce.
 
But these efforts are the exceptions to the rule. Just pick up any fashion magazine and you will see the role models that aren’t.
 
Trying to measure up to a size zero is symptomatic of a deeper systemic issue – that new women role models are actually making it more difficult for their peers to rise in the workplace. The Barbie Doll image perpetuates the false image that women who downsize their figures size up better in their careers. By putting emphasis on a woman’s shape, we distort what is vital and important—their gifts and talents.
 
We are all Cut from the Same Cloth
 
Men and women are created equally important and should be treated as such. The time has come for the fashion industry to start making clothing that compliments women rather than distorts their self-image and compromises their health. And women need to recognize that the scales of equality in the workplace have little to do with their scales at home.

– Additional reporting by Ali Spizman
 
** The views expressed in this piece are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Little PINK Book or any of its partners or affiliates.

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