Style model article

http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2014/oct/30/-sp-are-topshops-mannequins-too-skinny

Are Topshop's mannequins too skinny?

The high-street retailer is at the centre of a social media storm after a customer tweeted a picture of one of its dummies standing next to a size 8-10 customer

If catwalk models are regularly criticised for being underweight, it is now their instore counterparts – mannequins – in the firing line. This week, Topshop customer Becky Hopper tweeted a picture of her friend (size 8-10) next to a mannequin with exaggeratedly long, skinny legs. Retweeted over 6,000 times, it has seen the high street store accused of promoting poor body image.

Since the Tweet – which was sent with the hashtags #Topshop#poorbodyimage#irresponsible #fashion #highstreet – went viral, Hopper’s account has been flooded with similar complaints about skinny mannequins at other high street stores. This follows comparable issues at Primark and the storm around La Perla’s mannequins in May this year – the lingerie store displayed mannequins with visible ribs and another Twitter outcry ensued. The mannequins have since been removed.

As representations of women, mannequins are inevitably part of the debate around fashion and body image and reflect the zeitgeist’s idea of what a woman’s body should look like. In Venezuela, for example, mannequins’ shape have changed in response to the exaggerated ideals of beauty promoted in a country where a plastic surgery-honed physique is the ideal. In the UK, most high street stores use models that replicate a size eight or 10 and an impressive height, around 6ft. The average size of a British woman, on the other hand, is closer to a size 16 and stands at 163cm (5ft 4in).

There have been efforts to address this disparity in recent years. Debenhams began using size 16 models in 2013, a move that was met with praise from Equalities Minister Jo Swinson, as a step towards “celebrating our diverse society” and reflecting the demand for more realistic representations of women. A study by Cambridge University in 2012 even claimed there is evidence that larger mannequins will shift more units – as women are more likely to buy clothes when they are advertised or displayed on “women” a similar size to them.

Many shops would argue that mannequins aren’t living, breathing idealisations of women. While extremely realistic mannequins exist, the majority are rather more abstract, often featuring rectangular hands and no heads. Sure enough, Topshop’s statement on the Twitter storm – released on Thursday – said that Topshop had long “made it a priority to showcase a healthy size image”, adding: “The mannequin in question has been used in stores the past four years and is based on a standard UK size 10. The overall height, at 187cm, is taller than the average girl and the form is a stylised one to have more impact in store and create a visual focus. Mannequins are made from solid fibreglass, so in order for clothing to fit, the form of the mannequins needs to be of certain dimensions to allow clothing to be put on and removed; this is therefore not meant to be a representation of the average female body.”

In the age of online shopping, the cultural influence of dummies in bricks-and-mortar stores is arguably waning – but the debates continue apace. Even those who have sought to promote positive body image have come under fire. Alongside the praise for the Debenhams size 16 mannequins, for example, came warnings from Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies that larger shop dummies were “normalising” being overweight. Yesterday, Hopper was moved to write a blog explaining that she had no intention of “body-shaming skinny girls”, in response to angry messages online. As ever – when it comes to women and body image and the great talking shop of Twitter – it’s impossible to win.

The Woman who Walked into Doors - Analysis

This short story includes imperative sentences such as ''Ask me about it'' and ''Look at the burns'' to mirror how desperate she is feeling as she is begging the nurses to question how she obtained the injuries. The desperation is due to the little love and care she has recieved as a result of her abusive relationship she has been experiencing.  As she is demanding the nurses to ask her, it shows how shw wants help immedatley but she is terrified to admit what she is going through incase her partner dsicovers what she has told them.

Additionally, the adjectives used to desribe her injuries are also metaphorically included to mirror how her relationship is completley destroyed wiht no hope in sight. For example ''broken'' ''loose'' and ''cracked'' are all used to describe the state of her body as a result of the physical abuse she has had to encounter. It is also used to simply prove how she is feeling because of the injuries as her body is no longer how it used to be.

Also, she includes rhetorical questions such as ''what about the burns on my hands?'' ''the missing hair?'' and ''the teeth?'' to provok the nurses to ask her about her traumas. It is also used to question the nurses about their ability as she thinks it is absurd that they haven't noticed the agony she is going through, This could also lead to her becoming increasingly depressed as she may start to believe no one is concerned about her or cares for her well-being.

She also shows how disconnected she feels from other people by using various pronouns such as ''she'' ''they'' and ''he''. However, she may be using these pronounsto be protecting their idenitity as she could feel fearful that the man abusing her will discover what she has been thinking and will continue to disfigue her body. She may be referring to her partner as ''he'' instead of their name as she feels obligated to protect them although she wants to get away from him.

She includes several concrete nouns such as ''hospital'' ''nurse'' and ''clinic'' to emphisise the only things real in her life are related to pain and being in a medical area. This shows the readrer how seperate she feels from the outside world as she can only relate to the objects around her which mirror the hurt she is going through. Abstract nouns are also used to explain how she is currently feeling as ''ashamed'' and ''pain'' but she also includes how she wishes to feel in the future as she desires to be ''safe''. This would make the reader feel almost sorry for the character as she repeats how much pain she feels.

Verbs are also used to explain to the reader the abuse she encountered. Lexis such as ''pulled'' ''kicked'' and ''hit'' are all included to emphise how many types of harm she has been through and shows actually how serious the situaition she is in, actually is. All of the verbs she uses are dynamic verbs which are showing motion as she can only think of the physical side of her relationship.

Analysis of Like Dreaming, Backwards

In the opening paragraph many personal pronouns are used such as 'you' and 'you're' to immediately involve the reader. This is used to involve the reader emotionally and ensure that later on in the monologue that they will feel attached and part of the story. In addition, dashes are used for parentheses to indicate added emphasis on how serious her episodes can be. This also links the audience to the character as it shows how distant she is feeling as her thoughts are not joined together and are very complicated.

Furthermore, she used asynsetic listing to describe the various different ways she attempted to commit suicide. The use of this is to highlight her panic and desperate need for help as it speeds up the pace of the sentence which is a sign of urgency.The fact that this is used to explain the ways she has tried killing herself shows that it is a subject many people do not feel comfortable talking about.

She also uses taboo language to mirror her anger by telling the audience that suicide is not ''fucking easy''. This aggression is used to reflect how she feels towards people stereotyping suicide. She also uses a simple sentence when explaining this to link with the irritation she feels as a result of people telling her killing herself is the easy way out. Also the simple sentence makes it stick into the audiences head almost as if it is a message she needs to send to everyone to ensure that all people know just how difficult it is.

In the following paragraph, she continues to explain how she was admitted into hospital after one of her 'episodes' and describes the feeling of everyone knowing about her depression as ''refreshing''. This adjective suggests she is feeling positive and implies there may be a chance she will get better. I think this as refreshing is usually associated with something changing and becoming different so the fact she is describing how she feels using this adjective hints that her attitude towards living could possibly change. However, this is immediately proven wrong by the opening phrase ''but then'' showing that nothing has actually changed and instead things may be becoming worse,

In the last paragraph she makes her perspective of living very clear. She explains how she is ''surrounded'' by patients who have been in hospital for most of their lives. The verb 'surrounded' hints that there are lots of people suffering for the same depression she is experiencing which shows the audience just how common suicidal thoughts are and how it is something that is affecting a lot of people. In addition, she opens several of her sentences with ''and'' which shows informality and her thoughts changing rapidly. This may me because she is coming to the conclusion of death which is what most people fear which is a result in her pace increasing.

Style Model - Monolouge

Have you ever had a dream and suddenly, you realize what's happening doesn't make any sense - and you realize that you're dreaming? And you realize: if you know that you're dreaming, then you can control what's going to happen next? When I have an episode, it's exactly like that - only backwards.

The first time I tried to kill myself, I was ten. When I woke up the next morning, I was relieved. I was happy that I hadn't succeeded. I didn't tell anyone. And for a while, I was happy to be alive. But then, a year later, I tried again. I've lost count of how many times I've tried and failed. I tried to poison myself, overdose on sleeping pills, hang myself, drown myself, suffocate myself, and throw myself into traffic. Now, when I wake up after taking every sleeping pill in arm's reach and washing it down with a bottle of wine, I'm never, ever relieved. I feel trapped. I feel desperate. I feel like even more of a failure. And I have even wondered if the reason that I can't kill myself is because I'm already dead and in Hell. This is a living Hell. They say suicide is "taking the easy way out". Let me tell you: It's not that fucking easy. Your physical drive to live undermines your mind's desire to die. Your instincts to breathe are hard to overcome. You can't bear another second of misery - but your heart just refuses to stop beating. It has some nerve.

It's hard to tell the people I love that I want to die. So I spend a lot of my time and energy pretending to be normal. When I ended up in the hospital, it was almost a relief. Because I didn't have to act for anyone, anymore. I just cried all day. And no one took it personally. No one wanted to blame themselves. I could cry, and it didn't hurt anyone's feeling. The honesty was refreshing.

But then, I started to look at the other patients around me. I was surrounded by people who had been miserable their entire lives. There was an eighty-year-old woman there, who had been in and out of psych wards since she was my age. She stared into space all day, crying. And every day, she would look at me, and ask, "Why won't they just let me die?" And I didn't have an answer. And I realized: That was my future. I understood with perfect clarity that I was never going to get better. No therapy can help me. No medication can fix me. I can make everyone think I'm normal, that I'm coping, that I'm okay. But I've never been okay. I'll never be okay. I will always be one bad day away from killing myself. Until I'm dead. I spend my life trying to delay what I know is inevitable. And any day could be my last.

- Kellie Powell 

- http://notmyshoes.net/monologues/nell.html