Beauty in all its shapes and sizes

June 7th, 2006

At five-foot-eleven and 117 pounds, the average North American fashion model is hardly representative of what most women look like - which is why Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia (ANEB) Quebec has teamed up with 4corners productions to present Authenticité, a fashion show featuring models of all shapes and sizes.
Airbrushed images of super-slim women are ubiquitous in our culture, appearing on billboards, magazine covers, and television screens, said ANEB’s Executive Director Josée Champagne. “We are bombarded with these kinds of messages on a daily basis. It’s natural, it’s normalized, it’s seen as accessible. That’s what tricks us.”
The pursuit of physical perfection appears to transcend gender and age: Champagne said she’s seeing more and more men, middle-aged women and preadolescent girls suffering from full-blown eating disorders and varying degrees of body-image preoccupation. She recently fielded a call from a worried mother whose 11-year-old daughter was refusing to eat. When Champagne goes to local high schools to give presentations about eating disorders, she’s noticed more seventh-grade girls are dieting.Eating disorders have also touched the life of Authenticité coordinator Emilie Gauthier. Gauthier launched the first show last year to raise money for ANEB after watching a close friend struggle with anorexia for years. Though Gauthier is not anorexic herself, she too has struggled with her own body image. “Anybody who looks at themselves in the mirror these days has complexes about their bodies,” she said. “I had this frustration and I just said, screw it, this is not how you’re supposed to be.”
Gauthier rallied some close friends, found willing designers, and struggled to find sponsors. “I got turned down by almost every possible company,” she said. “The show survived, and this year people are taking it more seriously.”
The 30 models range in age from 15 to 30 and represent a diverse array of body types. “I purposefully chose regular people,” said Gauthier. “We’re not discriminating against smaller people. The main principle is to redefine the idea of beauty — a lot of people associate an individual’s image to his body. For me, a beautiful person is someone whose presence makes an impression on me and I remember them after they leave the room. It’s not about whether they have a tiny waist.”
While acknowledging that it’s tough to change standards that seem to have existed forever, Gauthier pointed out that the fashion industry’s preference for hyperthinness is a relatively recent trend. A beer advertisement from 1933 reflects the inverse of today’s cultural attitudes: it depicts a thin woman complaining of being “lonely and unhappy,” because “nobody likes a skinny girl.”
“In the 1940s and 50s, the models were big,” Gauthier said. The show is also a vehicle to get people talking about eating disorders and to make people aware there is help available.
“You often associate mental illness with shame, and we know that there’s a lot of people who suffer in silence,” acknowledged Champagne. “It’s okay to talk about it, and this is an opportunity for people to do that.”
The Authenticité Fashion Kabaret is slated to go Wednesday at downtown’s Club Soda (1225 Saint-Laurent Blvd.) Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance (call ANEB Quebec at +1 (514) 630-0907) or $25 at the door. All proceeds go to ANEB.