Victoria Beckham Comes Under Fire For ‘Unhealthy’ Model… But Is This Not Terribly Hypocritical?

Victoria Beckham posted the following Tweet promoting her eyewear line:

Back to work! Start the year with new frames from the Spring Summer 2018 #VBEyewear collection inspired by 1970s retro classics and updated for a feathery-light, fresh and modern look. Available at https://t.co/z8jKj9nMGH and #VBDoverSt. #VBSS18 pic.twitter.com/SDq0onL2EJ

— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) January 11, 2018

And had posted this tweet featuring the same model last month:

Introducing my Spring Summer 18 Eyewear collection featuring my favourite new Power Frame sunglasses! Available to shop now at https://t.co/wuSSOFWsyq and at #VBDoverSt! x VB #VBEyewear #VBSS18 pic.twitter.com/OQYTGLUu1F

— Victoria Beckham (@victoriabeckham) December 8, 2017

People are losing their crap.

Apart from looking absolutely ridiculous this is totally irresponsible. Images like this should be banned. We should be so past using models like this. But hey these sociopathic millionaires live in La La land.

— Mark Heaney (@Mark_Heaney) January 14, 2018

Why so thin models? It is sick…can you not see it?

— Adriana (@adrianaheyes1) January 15, 2018

Why not use healthy, normal women? What point are you trying to make? Please stop making our girls feel like starving is normal.

— Yoby Alexander (@yoby) January 15, 2018

Ahem… is this not skinny shaming? I thought shaming people for their bodies wasn’t allowable any more?

Even Piers Morgan says this woman makes him feel ill:

She wasn’t just slim, or ‘skinny’ – she was emaciated.

Frankly, the model, a 29-year-old Lithuanian woman named Giedre Dukauskaite, looked ill.

As Dr Amanda Foreman, a Wall Street Journal columnist, tweeted: ‘A model who looks like a teenager with severe anorexia is the face for the #VBEyeware 2018 summer collection. This is the reason why every study on social media and advertising calls the threat to young girls’ mental health “dire”.

Victoria’s followers were even more outraged.

‘Oh Victoria, how disappointing to see you using an emaciated model,’ wrote Jean McGrane, ‘not something you should be proud of and not a good example for your daughter.’

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such an instantaneous and furious backlash to a modeling campaign. Or one so warranted.

Victoria Beckham loves to talk about ‘empowering women’ but there’s nothing empowering about making them think this is the type of body they should covet.

In fact, it is far more likely to have the complete reverse effect of crushing young women’s confidence and driving them to emergency diets.

It’s sadly obvious from this latest campaign that Victoria doesn’t give a damn what I or anyone else thinks of her using dangerous ‘terribly thin’ models so long as enough young girls get lured in by it to keep the Beckham cash registers ringing

Perhaps, it must be at least suggested, because she herself is painfully thin?

Regardless, this is a horribly cynical, commercially ruthless, and morally reprehensible decision by someone who should, and does, know better.

Shame on you, Victoria Beckham.

I agree. I think the model looks very, very thin. Unhealthily so. But let’s talk about this, shall we?

Let’s start this beautiful week off with some radical self love ❤️🙌🏾🙌🏾
Full Cream Figures are Gorgeous 👌🏾#fullcreamfigure #plus #plussize #fatpositive #bodypositive #selflove #mcm #mondaymotivation pic.twitter.com/OqYqVXOXec

— FullCreamFigure(FCF) (@Fullcreamfigure) January 15, 2018

Size 22 supermodel or unhealthy role model? Tess Holliday to grace the cover of Vogue this year #alternativemodel #bigisbeautiful #invogue pic.twitter.com/DnhgPtoNd5

— Hannah Sanders (@morellobookings) August 25, 2017

Mannequin oversize, #TessHoliday pèse 113 kg et expose fièrement ses rondeurs http://t.co/1qoJT8wAWt #droptheplus pic.twitter.com/7hln8iFlA9

— MSN France (@MSNFrance) May 21, 2015

GabiFresh’s newest plus size swimsuit line celebrates curves, confidence, and survival: https://t.co/ZVIImkpvz0 pic.twitter.com/VHvino7zHR

— ESSENCE (@Essence) January 10, 2018

Now… if you don’t realize that obesity is actually a far more dangerous epidemic in our country than anorexia is… you must not get out much. Because it is. America is OBESE.

In 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported higher numbers once more, counting 65.7% of American adults as overweight, and 17% of American children, and according to the CDC, 63% of teenage girls become overweight by age 11.[12] In 2013 the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) found that 57.6% of American citizens were obese. The organization estimates that 3/4 of the American population will likely be overweight or obese by 2020.[13]

But images like those above are praised for being “empowering” and “body positive.”

So 75% of Americans will be overweight by 2020. According to ANRED,The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders states that approximately 3% of Americans suffer from anorexia, bulimia, or related disorders.

And yet… I see people get significantly more upset about it. Obesity, despite causing heart and organ failure, upping the chances of cancer, causing respiratory difficulties, etc, etc etc… is normalized.

Obesity is preventable. Sure, some may be predisposed more than others… but the vast majority of overweight and obese people COULD do something about it… they just don’t. (Then they get angry at posts like this for “shaming” them.)

So you know what? I think our girls are put at much higher risk when they are repeatedly told that “fat is beautiful” than when they see a picture of an anorexic-looking chick.

Most people aren’t going to look at that picture and go on an “emergency diet.” They’re just not. A lot of people WILL sit around all day and have that fifth pizza because you know what? “Fat is beautiful, and fat is average, and you need to love yourself for who you are.”

Unless of course, you’re very very skinny. Then you’re creepy and disgusting and a horrible example.

So no, I don’t think it’s the best choice to uphold anorexic models as a standard of beauty… but I don’t feel any differently than I do about overweight and obese models.

Both are unhealthy, both set bad examples. But how many anorexic people do you know? How many overweight people do you know? Which one is a bigger problem?

You tell me.