Urban Outfitters Ordered to Remove Outrageous Thigh Gap Picture on Their UK Website

originally posted by: paraphi

originally posted by: Jamie1
So you're all for discriminating against girls being perceived as underweight being allowed to earn money modeling?

No I'm not.

I am agreeing with the ASA's ruling that the advert was inappropriate for the target audience as the model was "noticably underweight". You probably don't know anyone who has been felt she was worthless because her body shape was never going to be "perfect" i.e. thin. It's a serious issue and not to be so casually brushed off.

Regards

Why are you making personal judgments about me and who I might know?

It's sexist, judgmental, and body shaming to have a bureaucrat look at a photo of a girls body, and declare the image of her body "irresponsible" and "dangerous."

That's body shaming. It's doing the exact thing you're against - telling a young girl her body isn't good enough the way it is.

And it's even worse BECAUSE the target market is young girls who are probably thin. It's sending a message to them that there's something wrong with their thin bodies.

No wonder obesity is at an all time high and we need to ban soft drinks and force kids on diets. Thin girls are being shamed to believe their bodies are dangerous.

I don't have a problem with the "natural" law. Actually, I support it.

I remember a comment by Cindy Crawford. A woman said to her: "I wish I looked like you in the morning", to which Cindy replied: "I do too".

I've been watching BBC. It's amazing how refreshing it is to see people on TV, that actually look like regular people.

Don't you know, nowadays it's only politically correct to show only obese women (and men) with their fat thighs rubbing together. We don't want to offend the over-indulgent calorically challenged. The hell with people who keep themselves in shape. They don't buy clothes.

originally posted by: Jamie1
Why are you making personal judgments about me and who I might know?

It's sexist, judgmental, and body shaming to have a bureaucrat look at a photo of a girls body, and declare the image of her body "irresponsible" and "dangerous."

Don't be silly I have made no personal judgements about you. You are inventing things not said.

As I have said, I agree with the ASA. I quoted the ASA judgement and their reasons. Nothing in the ruling about "dangerous" and "irresponsible". They said the model was "noticably underweight.

Here you go, read it this time...

The ASA considered that the model was very thin, and noted, in particular, that there was a significant gap between the model's thighs, and that her thighs and knees were a similar width. We considered that the model looked underweight in the picture. We understood that Urban Outfitters' target market was young people and considered that using a noticeably underweight model was likely to impress upon that audience that the image was representative of the people who might wear Urban Outfitters' clothing, and as being something to aspire to. We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible.

Source ASA website

Regards

originally posted by: Char-Lee

originally posted by: Jamie1

originally posted by: Char-Lee
a reply to: Jamie1

There are many things which affect our children massively and what they see all day is one of those things. There was a time when we were decent enough to care how the kids are affected by our own desires and YES there were laws to protect them. There are still laws such as men exposing themselves to kids is not just his choice.
Personally I don't mind controls on things that help our kids be more healthy.

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE EATING DISORDERS?
27% of girls 12-18 have significant symptoms

These things were not happening before we made a trend of showing starved people who look very like the starving in africa and made it popular in ads.
www.eatingdisorderfoundation.org...

Those who suffer from Anorexia Nervosa restrict their caloric intake for long periods of time and deliberately starve themselves. Weight loss is achieved by avoiding food, frenzied exercise, vomiting, laxatives and other means. An intense fear of becoming obese as well as a distorted body image are other characteristics.
Bulimia is associated with binge-eating and purging. Purging can be in the form of fasting, self-induced vomiting, excessive exercising or use of diuretics.
Anorexia and Bulim

Your presupposition that "skinny" is bad or unhealthy, and that seeing "skinny" women will cause a girl to have an eating disorder.

And you're claiming that somehow the media is responsible by showing skinny women.

Then why is obesity at an all time high? Why is the government forcing school lunch diet plans and banning large sodas AND banning photos of skinny girls?

There are a zillion studies on the subject and it is clear.
[url=http://scholar.google.com/scholar?

The numbers and charts here show it does go just one way.
www.plosone.org...-0086302-g005

Paired-sample t-tests revealed that women preferred a lower BMI in attractive than healthy trials when exposed to light weight attractive (t9 = 3.94; p = .003, d = .92) and light weight less attractive (t11 = 4.06; t = .002, d = .42) but not plus size attractive (t14 = .52; p = .610, d = .11) or plus size less attractive (t11 = .28; p = .783, d = .051) model images.

An increasing number of studies shows that exposure to thin as ideal bodies in the media has negative effects on young women's body images
Read More: guilfordjournals.com...

See scholarly studies listed under google search
does advertising thin affect childrens body image?

I read through your source. Very interesting!

Thank you!!!

Summarizing, men and women perceive thin as more attractive than not thin, for both health reasons and physical attraction.

Women can internalize the thin images more than men, which can lead them to feel bad about their own bodies, and possibly change their eating habits, and eventually lead to eating disorders.

Therefore, we must hire bureaucrats to police images used in advertising to make sure thin girls aren't used in the ads so this doesn't happen.

Do you think we should also ban rap music promoting gun violence?

originally posted by: Jamie1
Do you think we should also ban rap music promoting gun violence?

Why don't you save that for the thread you are going to be making about it in 15 minutes?

originally posted by: TheArrow

originally posted by: Jamie1
Do you think we should also ban rap music promoting gun violence?

Why don't you save that for the thread you are going to be making about it in 15 minutes?

Do you have an intelligent comment to ad to this discussion?

Why do you find my posts so important?

a reply to: Jamie1

They could use that theory to ban advertising for a lot of products, it doesn`t make any sense what they are doing.

if they want to continue down this road they could ban advertisements for expensive cars because most people won`t be able to afford to buy them and it might make them feel bad or even worse it might cause them to go out and commit crimes to try and get money to buy one of those expensive cars they see advertised.
Why stop with thigh gaps and expensive cars why not just ban all ads for anything that people of average income can not afford, because after all we wouldn`t want them to feel bad that they can`t afford those things.

I think it`s just an excuse to ban ads that show a lot of skin,i wonder if they have actually ever banned ads for expensive things that most people can`t afford.

a reply to: Jamie1

Having not read all the posts, this is extremely sexist. Men can be shown wearing underwear, with what they now call 'thigh gap'. I've seen it! But a woman doing the exact same pose, and that's somehow illegal? What is this, 1815 or 2015?

originally posted by: Tardacus
a reply to: Jamie1

They could use that theory to ban advertising for a lot of products, it doesn`t make any sense what they are doing.

if they want to continue down this road they could ban advertisements for expensive cars because most people won`t be able to afford to buy them and it might make them feel bad or even worse it might cause them to go out and commit crimes to try and get money to buy one of those expensive cars they see advertised.
Why stop with thigh gaps and expensive cars why not just ban all ads for anything that people of average income can not afford, because after all we wouldn`t want them to feel bad that they can`t afford those things.

I think it`s just an excuse to ban ads that show a lot of skin,i wonder if they have actually ever banned ads for expensive things that most people can`t afford.

Well they should ban ads for McDonald's then.

If girls are not happy with their bodies because they're not thin enough, they should ban any ads for products that are making them fat too.

They should ban using the internet altogether. One ad not seen isn't going to stop them from seeing millions of other images. They'll probably Google "weight loss" and see this:

a reply to: Aleister

Well be thankful As this story is from the UK, you guys in the USA aren't sexist in anyway. Just the home of freedom and bravery, hell yeah.

FACT: 14 year old girl passed out on athletic field at school. They rushed her to emergency.

Diagnoses: her body was feeding inself from the inside because she wasn't eating.

Of course these unrealistic ads absolutely affect young girls.

originally posted by: Tardacus
a reply to: Jamie1

They could use that theory to ban advertising for a lot of products, it doesn`t make any sense what they are doing.

if they want to continue down this road they could ban advertisements for expensive cars because most people won`t be able to afford to buy them and it might make them feel bad or even worse it might cause them to go out and commit crimes to try and get money to buy one of those expensive cars they see advertised.
Why stop with thigh gaps and expensive cars why not just ban all ads for anything that people of average income can not afford, because after all we wouldn`t want them to feel bad that they can`t afford those things.

I think it`s just an excuse to ban ads that show a lot of skin,i wonder if they have actually ever banned ads for expensive things that most people can`t afford.

Well, as you mention it, I think all television, radio and billboard adverts for fast food should be banned to.
It's bad for adults that are addicted to fast food and bad for impressionable children who build trust with a brand that poisons their body over a number of years.

Fast food is always a bad decision, we shouldn't be advertising it.

originally posted by: woodwardjnr
a reply to: Aleister

Well be thankful As this story is from the UK, you guys in the USA aren't sexist in anyway. Just the home of freedom and bravery, hell yeah.

LOL. I'm in a beach area not far from Hollywood, CA.

It's surreal. Sometimes feels like you've been transported to a utopia world where everyone is cloned and manufactured.

Mind the gap!

originally posted by: Jamie1

originally posted by: TheArrow

originally posted by: Jamie1
Do you think we should also ban rap music promoting gun violence?

Why don't you save that for the thread you are going to be making about it in 15 minutes?

Do you have an intelligent comment to ad to this discussion?

Yes I do.

You haven't responded to my other posts.

I wonder why.

originally posted by: TheArrow
What is wrong with you people?

Racism isn't real. Sexism isn't real.

It's like this site has become a lowest common denominator cesspool of ignorance and hatred.

Shame on you.

What point are you trying to make here?

I have no idea. I couldn't find one.

But since you raised sexism and racism, then you'll see that clearly this obsession over judging a woman's body is sexist.

Imagine if this was about race, and a dark skinned black model was banned because their skin tone was too dark.

Dumb.

a reply to: Jamie1

Imagine if this was about race, and a dark skinned black model was banned because their skin tone was too dark.

It's not though is it?
What's wrong with you?

originally posted by: woodwardjnr
a reply to: Jamie1

Imagine if this was about race, and a dark skinned black model was banned because their skin tone was too dark.

It's not though is it?
What's wrong with you?

Isn't skin tone natural?

There have been objections to lightening dark skin.

originally posted by: Annee
FACT: 14 year old girl passed out on athletic field at school. They rushed her to emergency.

Diagnoses: her body was feeding inself from the inside because she wasn't eating.

Of course these unrealistic ads absolutely affect young girls.

You've slipped in a presupposition that's false.

Unrealistic.

Thin girls are not unrealistic. They're as real as fat girls. You just said so in your other post about the girls at the beach.

Why is being thin unrealistic? Because some girls choose not to eat you want to be judge and jury as to who can earn a living as a model?

There are lots of obese people dying everyday from heart attacks. Should we ban fast food?

How about rap music? Ban that?

Oh... here's a good one. Religion. Should we ban religion because it makes people feel bad about themselves?

If we accept your premise, and begin with banning models from advertising, where do we stop?

How many people do we need to exert control over to make sure nobody is potentially harmed?