Negative comments on body image and weight from Anna Wintour’s interview on 60 Minutes have been making the rounds, showing that the fashion industry norm of equating beauty with being thin or skinny is still cemented in peoples’ minds. Given Wintour’s high-ranking position in the fashion world as the editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine, we can’t help but be disappointed — disgusted even — that she continues to perpetuate our culture’s obsession with weight and the negative body image that it fosters.
The Vogue editrix admits to having asked Oprah Winfrey to shed 20 pounds in order to be featured on the magazine’s cover in one of its 1998 issues, though this part of her interview was not aired. Anna Wintour is quoted saying that “it was a very gentle suggestion [...] I went to Chicago to visit Oprah, and I suggested that it might be an idea that she lose a little bit of weight [...] I said simply that you might feel more comfortable. She was a trooper!”
We highly doubt that it was as gentle a suggestion as Wintour claims. And the fact that she said Winfrey might be more comfortable if she slimmed down? It’s just another way of saying that she might not feel as bad about herself if she were thinner. Again, intimating that the more a person weighs the less they are able to accept and respect themselves, to feel comfortable in their own bodies.
As it turns out, Oprah complied with the request and lost weight. “[Oprah] totally welcomed the idea, and she went on a very stringent diet,” according to Wintour. “And it was one of our most successful covers ever.”
The tagline from Oprah Winfrey’s cover was about her “amazing makeover” — i.e., how losing weight and being skinnier made her more beautiful; how she improved by shedding the pounds. The whole reason for putting Winfrey on the cover was to point out her weight loss, to feature her as a person who was winning their struggle with their weight.
The Vogue issue in question is from over 10 years ago and clearly Anna Wintour’s position and views on weight and body image have not changed since then.
She further states in the 60 Minutes interview that she approves of and defends the use of Photoshop to alter images of people, thereby making them more “beautiful” than they are in real life. “That’s one of the things that makes me rather angry, that I don’t understand [...] That if you look wonderful, does that make you less important? Less powerful? Less serious?” She fails to grasp that it’s not a question of looking wonderful; the issue at hand is that photoshopping images presents artificial perceptions of and unattainable standards for beauty.
The cherry on the cake came in the form of Wintour’s comments on obesity: “I’d just been on a trip to Minnesota, where I can only kindly describe most of the people I saw as little houses [...] There’s such an epidemic of obesity in the United States, and for some reason, everybody focuses on anorexia.” Little houses? How deftly she turns the negative focus away from the obsession with weight loss by trying to spin the issue to look like obesity is the only true weight problem — and that losing weight is its logical cure and thus should be viewed in a positive light as promoting good health.
I do think that there is more truth in what Anna said about obesity being an illness than you give credit for. I do not say anorexia is not, but you can be skinny without having a throw up problem. On the other hand, if you are fat, there is certainly more at stake for you, since a lot of your body’s initial equilibrium is thrown out of balance. Obesity is a death factor in itself, being thin …not as much.
Obesity is a problem and people should take care of their bodies for health reasons. Bu I also hate it when people are obsessed with loosing weight.
I agree with you for the most part. But I think that shedding weight should be encouraged. Not for appearance’s sake, but for health related reasons. There is an epidemic of obesity in America. I don’t think cosmetic slimming should be encouraged at all. I don’t agree with photoshopping, I wish that Wintour would acknowledge that little flaws make us MORE beautiful. It’s real and something readers could relate to.
-Ashley
Indeed, a compulsive obsession with being too thin
and weight in general send mixed and even negative
singles to women AND men…but in the outcry to shift
perceptions about body image there are MANY who
only hear this as permission to binge, bulge, and swing
the pendulum too far to the ‘other side’. With a national
population that is already drastically overweight, I can’t
help but feel the rallying cry to be ‘normal’ is being understood as be as fat as you want. Which any medical professional will tell you is just as unhealthy, if not MORE unhealthy than being thin. That’s were media, even this blog, fall short in not promoting a message of be the
healthy, natural body type you ‘should be’ but do so with
healthy food, exercise, and common sense. The danger in
(what was now proven to be ‘faked’) Dove’s Campaign for
Real Beauty and others is that it is just as skewed as the
skinny models on the runway.
And I assure you, step outside of the ‘fashion industry’
and onto any Main Street, Shopping Mall or WalMart and there are VERY few women or men who err on the side of
waif-ness. To the contrary, we are fatter than EVER and
we are fatter than ‘normal’.
This is a great post. Obesity is indeed a very alarming issue. Children as early as 6 years old are even diagnosed. I just hope government and health workers are effective in providing health education to families. Slimming pills must be avoided and exercise and diet must be maintained and controlled.