Average is the New Fat

Aesthetics focuses on studying art and beauty under the views of philosophy.  Aesthetics focuses more on defining what people want based off their sensory reactions. Ethics focuses more on what is wrong and what is right. The two are related in fashion, someone may view beauty one way that may be unethical. Is It possible to bridge the gap between aesthetics and ethics?  I don’t think so, ethics is something that is defined based on an individual, in terms of ethics you can’t please everyone.  

The top concerns with ethics and aesthetics in the fashion industry is the burden for women to thin. Women are concerned with being skinny to increase the aesthetics of how women are perceived as beautiful. The modeling industry’s definition of “thin” is not the definition of women in the real world, a size seven model would be considered “plus sized”. This stigma has caused a nation of women with body image disorders and the feeling of never being good enough or thin enough, which causes disorders such as Anorexia or Bulimia.  This causes a huge ethical program, should the modeling industry hire more “normal” sized models and are they to blame for how poorly women view themselves?

I say yes, the way the industry portrays women is unethical, many of the women that are models don’t even look like that, many models are “photoshopped” to attain the perfect figure that they do not have, and this sets unrealistic standards. Models are involved in unhealthy behaviors to keep their weight low such as smoking cigarettes, using cocaine to speed up their metabolism, eating cotton balls to feel full, and indulging in diet pills. Are we promoting these unhealthy behaviors by using these models or wearing the brands these models promote?

There is also a huge difference of beauty based on racial differences.Being a black girl living a “white town” in Connecticut I’ve always struggled with how the definition of beautiful varies based on color. In my culture a women who is curvy and “has skin on her bones” is considered beautiful while my counterparts at school viewed beauty as being skin and having a thigh gap, I felt like I never could be viewed as beautiful to both my peers and my family.

 The book states how models and the fashion industry can cause Body Dysmorphic Disorder, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, and depression. Being a female we always have to look a certain way and act a certain way to attract a partner. Dating is so superficial and a potential partner (male or female) disregards personality traits or goals and just focuses on appearance. I believe the fashion industry has caused many problems within teenagers and young women and unethical promotes unrealistic standards of beauty.

Ethical Questions:

 Is it ethical to have a different view of beauty based on different cultures?

Is it fair for models to have their appearance photoshopped?