When I was at Kohl’s about a week ago, I saw something that absolutely horrified me.
I was looking at bathing suits, when I noticed one of the mannequins had been made to look like it had hip bones and ribs sticking out. When I pointed it out to my mother, she just shook her head and shrugged, as if to say “that’s life.” I was shocked that no one seemed to be similarly concerned. When I told my friends about it later, they acted like they didn’t care either. I was so confused as to why this store would do something like this, and I was even more shocked that no one seemed to care.
People tend to create mannequins in the form of what they see as “the perfect body”, so the bathing suit looks good on it. Does this mean that suddenly, if you don’t have bones protruding out of our body, you aren’t beautiful? Is it now a symbol of status and beauty to be so skinny that it looks like your skin has trouble covering your body? If you were born that way, then that is fine, you are lucky enough to be able to pull of those 00 jeans. However, if you are a size 7 and you see that mannequin, you might think your body isn’t good enough.
Body image is a very sensitive subject among teenage girls and something as small as seeing a mannequin in a store, or a picture in a magazine can set off some serious self-hatred. According to the National Association of Anorexia And Associated Disorders, up to 24 million people in the United states of all ages from an eating disorder. Ninety five percent of those who have eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.8. That means that 22,800,00 teenagers are starving themselves or purging after meals so they can look like this mannequin at Kohl’s.
I believe that department stores need to develop a more realistic expectation for teenage girls, and for women in general. A size 7 isn’t fat and stores acting like a 00 is the best way to be is crazy. I think that eating disorders would dramatically go down in numbers if stores and magazines started acknowledging how people really look.
Maddie Dimond, sophomore
