Buckle up! 80’s Glamour Shots and Diet Culture. Go ahead and grab a seat right down in front of my soapbox, and let’s talk about it, shall we?
You can find a similar image to this one above all over current pageant pages and Pinterest. I wonder if the first person to ever take an image of a pageant contestant wrapped in her sash this way drew any immediate connections to stereotypes and the weight loss garbage that surrounded my young, impressionable self in the 80’s through the 90’s?
It was the first thing I thought of when she asked for this shot. I remember seeing apples, models, a scale, a pudgy tummy, and a meal replacement drink all wrapped in the same signature measuring tape, squeezing its life force right out all over my magazines and tv advertisements growing up. Companies promising their “Fat Girls’ Diet” (not even joking) could help you lose 10 pounds a week and you could go back to school and “be in with the slim”.
I was in eighth grade the first time I tried Slim Fast. Growing up, many of the women (only ever women) around me would say things like, “You gonna put more butter on that? Haven’t you had enough? Maybe if you ate more things like broccoli, you would look healthier. She just doesn’t stop eating!” Decades of lies, shame, and someone else’s sad stories meant to make you feel small, passed down through casual remarks made loud enough to get their point across and dig their claws in deep. A war I didn’t ask to be a part of, but inherited nonetheless. And judging by the way women of all ages respond when we first start talking about how they want to show up in their photographs (if they want to show up), it seems we still have a long way to go towards a body positive mindset.
This beautiful girl I photographed, Allie, is already there. She came to me to celebrate all that she is now, for who she is now, and for what she looks like now. Someone told her that ‘people like her would never win a pageant’, but she did. And you know what, that measuring tape with her accolades and name boldly embroidered in silk still doesn’t encompass or measure all of her worth either. A long time ago, there was a diet ad that claimed, “I believe in Crystal Light ‘cause I believe in me!” A new drink that will help you look and feel your best. What a message! Sweatbands and spandex be damned! Instead, let’s get curious about what we see and hear. I’ve never found a drink in my life that made me feel like I was someone worth believing in. That would be liquid courage at its finest wouldn’t it?
Woman to woman here- WE CAN DO BETTER- better for ourselves, better for each other, and better for the young girls who are watching, reading, and hearing everything we say about ourselves and about others. We are the changemakers and it is time! Show up for yourself and take heart, because you were already born WORTHY!