I remember that scene because, as a chubby 15 year old, for weeks on end I used it as an ‘inspiration’ to lose weight. Hip bones positively scream out for attention from the screen, tanned skin stretched taut against bone, skeleton clearly visible with just the slightest amount of flesh allowed to differentiate that actress from one whose body had been entirely ravaged by some parasitic disease or famine. I have a very clear memory of the opening scene of ‘Pretty Woman’ where Julia Roberts (or possibly her body double) are filmed lying on their side in a bed. How different a life she might lead, undistracted by preoccupations with size, shape and weight? Think how she might be allowed to flourish as an individual if the instinct to stunt her own physical mass was not indelibly implanted into her psyche by the time she was 12? What if she didn’t need to worry about morphing her body into something it never wanted to be? Now, that really would be heaven. If her formative years were focused on the development of her own little personality, rather than being unnecessarily preoccupied with the seemingly timeless lure of just ‘being thin’. ‘Dream on, Mummy’, I hear you say, ‘It has always been thus, and thus it will always be…’īut what if this generation could be different? What if their expectations and ideals could be reprogrammed? What if the imagery that is routinely projected at them could be consciously adapted to reflect the world they actually live in, not the one they are expected to aspire to? Because can you imagine all the good that could do? And I for one would prefer if the comparative images all around her reflected the world she actually lives in, rather than some fictional nirvana where every woman is comprised of ‘perfect 10’ proportions and non-existent thighs. However, over time she will start to notice. Her eye may be occasionally turned by how much pink someone happens to be wearing, or by a particularly sparkly earring, but, by and large, she is still blissfully unaware of any other criteria by which to assess her fellow little (and big) beings.
And what hope has she if this is still the kind of image that is being projected as ‘the norm’? Why in 2015 have we not learned anything or moved on an iota? Why are we still being conditioned to believe that thin is the norm, when it clearly isn’t?Īt present, my little girl judges people purely on the basis of how kind they are to her, and how much fun she has with them. As my little girl inevitably becomes more and more aware of the world around her, and where and how she fits into that world, I realise that an awareness of her own shape and size is only just around the corner. WHEN I HAPPENED upon the story earlier this week about Urban Outfitters and their now infamous ‘thigh gap’ photograph, the image in question sparked a visceral, irrational rage inside of me that is hard to describe.
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