Laura Merrell
I have been thinking recently about the issue of body image, what with Lowry now displaying placards above the dishes providing us with serving sizes and calorie counts, and the Scot Fitness Center consisting entirely of windows, so people can stare at me as I work out. To top it all off, President Barack Obama proclaimed September National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month, further reminding me about the problem of physical appearance in America. All these factors came to a head when I saw a particularly disturbing recent episode of “Project Runway.”
“Project Runway” is a TV show where aspiring fashion designers compete in weekly challenges to win a chance to display their work at New York Fashion Week. The show occasionally has challenges that involve designing for real women with curves and sizes in the double digits.
During one such challenge, Ven Budhu, one of the aspiring designers, was overly distraught by his model who, according to him, was an unthinkable size 14. He mercilessly insulted and criticized her throughout the episode, forcing her to try on belts that were obviously too small. Budhu’s rude behavior may have contributed to his being in the bottom two that week, but the real reason was the unflattering, shiny blue top and too-tight pencil skirt with a vulgar zipper he had designed. His clothes, not his comments, mattered. However, he was not sent home.
Essentially, the judges (Michael Kors, Heidi Klum and Nina Garcia) gave him a meaningless slap on the wrist. But hey, one minute you’re in, and the next it doesn’t matter that you insulted someone’s appearance so harshly that they burst into tears.
This “Project Runway” episode is just one telling example of a larger problem. Our society has evolved enough to establish a generally held belief that prejudice on the basis of things such as race, gender and sexual orientation is unacceptable, but there’s not a big enough emphasis on physical appearance, especially weight.
The media and society at large seem to have no problem brushing aside jokes or insults, à la Ven Budhu, about how someone looks. Why can’t physical appearance be given equal importance with other topics that are off limits for ridicule or prejudice?
What angers me more than the episode is Ven Budhu’s response to the negative press his comments have received. On his personal Twitter, he tweeted an apology a day for the last week, but he still hasn’t learned his lesson. One of his tweets thanked his fans for their support through this difficult time, and explained that sometimes, “things can be misunderstood.” There was no misunderstanding his blatant and intolerable attacks on her size, which all the other contestants and their clients disagreed with, but did nothing about.
“Project Runway” had an amazing opportunity to show that not all women are, or should be, the size of the skinny models they send down the runway each week. Instead, they made an insincere effort to placate the rightfully upset woman and quickly moved on. The media needs to start changing their attitude toward what constitutes a real woman. As Heidi Klum announces each week on the show, let’s say “auf wiedersehen” to insulting physical appearance.