When I was in recovery I still read my monthly edition of Vogue. I know some might see that as a form self-sabotage for someone recovering from anorexia but I assure you it really wasn’t. I detached myself a long time ago from what I know to be an unattainable, edited and false presentation of beauty. I read it from a very different perspective. One of aesthetics, design and more recently political activism.
However, when I read my September issue I got really, reallllyyyy pissed. I brought my anger to my morning groups that day and with the help of my therapist and others in the group I was able to work through that anger and realise I wanted to do something. So I wrote a letter to the editor and I wanted to share it with you all.
Sunday 9th August 2020
Edward Enninful Esq.,
The Editor,
Vogue Magazine,
Vogue House,
1 Hanover Square,
Mayfair,
London.
W1S 1JU
Dear Mr Enninful,
I am an 18 year old woman writing to you after reading the September Vogue article on Barbie and the ‘Foundations of Style’. Having been an avid reader and admirer of the magazine for the past few years I was shocked and disappointed by the message conveyed through this photo shoot. The article citing that Barbie has never been ‘a more accurate reflection of ambitious women’ is misplaced and factually incorrect. Although I support the sentiment of female empowerment and diversity, it is erroneous to express it by using Barbie’s unattainable image of perfection. The Yale centre for Eating and Weight Disorders has calculated how much the average healthy woman’s body would have to change in order for her to have the proportions of a Barbie doll; they found that women would have to grow two feet taller, extend their neck length by 3.2 inches, gain 5 inches in chest size, and lose 6 inches in waist circumference. No woman could ever healthily achieve such a look. Yet in the article it is written that it should be ‘our ambition’ to strive for the unattainable.
It is striking how willing your writers are to focus on the vibrancy of hair change, make up hues, and home design whilst blatantly ignoring the problems that Barbie creates in regards to body image. She may have multiple different careers as an ‘astronaut’ or a ‘polar marine biologist’, but in reality to be like Barbie you would not be able to pursue ‘untamed ambition’ but instead live in a life filled with restriction. In truth, due to the eating habits Barbie would have to adhere to to achieve her ‘inclusive identity’, she would starve. Her body would physically decay: bone density would reduce, she would be bed bound, develop immune deficiencies, her heart rate would slow, and she would lack the ability to concentrate on her books and never even meet the rigorous demands of a degree in ‘architecture’. The brain alone needs five hundred calories a day to function properly. Barbie does not represent ‘opportunity’ but is rather the emblem of restriction and pain that eating disorders create.
I know that Barbie lives in a ‘Dream House’ and for that reason the world surrounding her is fictitious, but in the UK where hospital admissions for eating disorders has increased from 7,500 to 16,000 per year between 2011-2018 alone, is this truly the model of empowerment that you want to promote? Moreover, I was also struck in this issue by the prevalent theme of recycling and making fashion more eco. With this in mind, should we just gloss over the reality that Barbie is one of the most affordable toys for young girls but is also made of toxic plastic? The majority of her accessories are also plastic. Unfortunately, Barbie and her Dream House contributes to landfill wastage and the consequential exacerbation of anthropogenic climate change.
Barbies do not cause eating disorders, climate change or sexism. But they represent a school of thought archaic and incongruous in our current society. I hope that in the future, Vogue, a fashion magazine renowned for its originality and magnificence, will think harder before choosing such a mindless and unenlightened theme for its photo shoots. Please do not be part of the problem, and do not just try and tick the ‘diversity’ box. There is so much positive force for change that Vogue can and does champion. I hope Vogue will aspire to be the magazine I once fell in love with.
Yours sincerely,
Georgia Hall
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