This Is the Next Battle Frontier in the War Against Body Shaming
January 2, 2018 in Blogs
The feminist struggle against body shaming practices in the media has resulted in steady yet slow progress. Victoria’s Secret, a company that epitomizes the brands that make women feel bad about the way they look, still doesn’t feature any plus-sized models in its collection of “angels.” But one small victory last month after the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show brought some hope. As Alyssa Hardy pointed out in Teen Vogue, Lais Ribeiro, one of the models, showed visible stretch marks while walking down the runway, marking a significant shift in body acceptance by major corporations. The time has come for stretch mark acceptance.
All signs point toward stretch marks as the next battle for body positivity advocates. 2017 was arguably about skin pigmentation; models like Winnie Harlow and Nyakim Gatwech rose in popularity this year, thanks to social media. The year before saw a different victory when size 16 Ashley Graham made history after becoming the first plus-sized model featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, a moment many hoped signified the end of the fashion industry’s shunning of women over size 8.
Now it’s stretch marks’ time. Kendrick Lamar revitalized a conversation around stretch marks earlier this year when he released HUMBLE. The lyrics include the lines: “I'm so f**kin' sick and tired of the Photoshop/Show me somethin' natural like afro on Richard Pryor/Show me somethin' natural like ass with some stretch marks.” Later in 2017, Barcelona-based artist Cinta Tort Cartró made headlines with her snapshots of stretch marks colored in with rainbow paints. “It all started as a form of expression, but it quickly turned into social commentary of the male-dominated culture we live in,” she told Yahoo Beauty.
Jul 8, 2017 at 1:57am PDT
The changing nature of popular photography has played a huge role in the way the public sees stretch marks. For years, women have been told to cover up their marks with creams …read more
Source: ALTERNET
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