I find it is safer and more accurate to attribute human folly to oversight and ignorance rather than malice. I don't believe that the "Real Women have Curves" campaign was created by a bunch of ugly overweight women with grudges. Nor was it in any way a reaction to naturally curveless women (and there is a distinction between being thin and being curve-free; you and I both know buxom skinny girls). Instead, as far as I can tell, it was meant as a reminder that your body has a natural shape, and for the vast majority of women this shape involves curves. Thus the extreme attempts by young women to not only lose weight but eradicate all curves are not only doomed to failure, but flat out stupid because their shape is a natural part of them and unless they go to extreme (and artificial, hence the 'real') measures, they can't change it.
Unfortunately, this marginalizes the minority of women who don't have curve to their figure, because this mindset assumes that body type is only achieved by starvation and/or surgery, and that's very unfair. It also implies that such a figure is less desirable and feminine than the alternative, and that, as you've mentioned, goes against the ideal concept that healthy examples of all body types are equally attractive.
That said, the message it tries (and to many, succeeds) to send is important. "Love your body" is similarly concise and catchy, and a much more equitable sentiment, but because it's so broad, it has less power. "Real women have curves" wasn't meant to snub people or portray an absolute truth, it was meant as a powerful slogan to combat a problem. Problems involving larger and/or more vocal groups have more push in society at large, and as far as the general public knows, there are far more women with anorexia than women gorging themselves in an attempt to acquire hips their pelvis simply isn't built for. (It's possible you could tie this in to breast implants, as well, but our society doesn't seem to want to see those as a bad thing.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zaluzianskya and ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
skylark_photos
no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 07:15 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, this marginalizes the minority of women who don't have curve to their figure, because this mindset assumes that body type is only achieved by starvation and/or surgery, and that's very unfair. It also implies that such a figure is less desirable and feminine than the alternative, and that, as you've mentioned, goes against the ideal concept that healthy examples of all body types are equally attractive.
That said, the message it tries (and to many, succeeds) to send is important. "Love your body" is similarly concise and catchy, and a much more equitable sentiment, but because it's so broad, it has less power. "Real women have curves" wasn't meant to snub people or portray an absolute truth, it was meant as a powerful slogan to combat a problem. Problems involving larger and/or more vocal groups have more push in society at large, and as far as the general public knows, there are far more women with anorexia than women gorging themselves in an attempt to acquire hips their pelvis simply isn't built for. (It's possible you could tie this in to breast implants, as well, but our society doesn't seem to want to see those as a bad thing.)