January 26, 2011

All Around the World

Image by © Royalty-Free/Corbis

With January coming to an end, the summit is less than two months away! Our Endangered Species partners in Australia, Brazil, England and Argentina are preparing as well. While we experience the struggles of being a woman in our own image-obsessed culture, most of us might not know much about the struggles of our fellow women in other countries.

Sharon Haywood of Adios Barbie and AnyBody writes about the Argentinean body image-fixation in her post, “Battling the Beauty Myth in Argentina.” Haywood discusses how women in Argentina struggle to find clothes that fit them because stores don’t carry large enough sizes. She mentions how in 2005, the country passed a size law called “la Ley de Talles” for Buenos Aires. She describes the law as follows:

The law states that retailers of clothing for teens must stock sizes 38 to 48 (UK 10-20/US 8-18) of all items available for purchase. It also mandates that sizes small, medium, and large, and sizes 1 through 4 be abolished. Furthermore, every size must be accompanied by a ticket that specifies bust, waist, and hip measurements that adhere to standards set by the National Institute for Normalisation and Certification, otherwise known as IRAM. The penalties for noncompliance include fines and even store closure. Argentine consumers and activists applauded the legislation. But the celebration didn’t last long.

It turns out that despite the law, stores did not follow suit. Noncompliance, opposition, and corruption plagued efforts to enforce the law and little progress was made. Haywood explains that the biggest obstacle to overcome was “Argentina’s commitment to the beauty myth.” While we don’t have a size law here in the U.S., we can all relate to this omnipresent beauty myth. Pressure to look a certain way exists in cultures across the world, and women are suffering because of it. It isn’t just popular media that sends the message that thinner is better: some stores sell a limited variety of sizes, sending the idea that larger sizes are undesirable or unacceptable.

Women, activists, and supporters in London, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, and Sáo Paulo will join us in March as we meet at the summit and discuss ways to combat these beauty myths that cause us to reject our appearance. We’re ready for change so that all of us women around the world can come to appreciate our bodies.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 at 2:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.
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