Model's flap with Ralph Lauren another black mark on body image
6:19 AM Fri, Oct 16, 2009 | Permalink
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This combination AP photo shows, at left, an undated and digitally altered Ralph Lauren advertisement of model Filippa Hamilton displayed in a Japanese department store and posted on several Web sites, and, at right, a runway photo of Hamilton in New York from Sept. 15, 2006. The former Ralph Lauren model whose image in a roundly criticized advertisement was digitally slenderized said Wednesday Oct. 14, 2009 that the apparel maker did not renew her contract because she was "too large." Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. is contending that it dismissed Hamilton because of a contract dispute and that the photo was mistakenly released.
Filippa Hamilton is 5 ft., 10 inches tall and weighs 120 lbs. And the Polo Ralph Lauren Co. thinks she's too fat to be one of its models? That's what the Today Show reported earlier this week. To add image-injury to this insult, the company reportedly "mistakenly" created a Photoshopped image of her in a mall in Japan showed up on the Internet site BoingBoing.com. As NBC reports, "the advertising image, emblazoned with the Ralph Lauren name, showed a painfully emaciated woman. Bloggers were quick to point out that in the image Hamilton's head was bigger than her hips." "They Photoshopped her in a way that for me is grotesque and makes her look like a cartoon," Geoffrey Menin, Hamilton's attorney, told NBC News. "The trouble is that it's damaging to her. Who wants to hire somebody that looks like that?" I have to say Filippa and I have something in common: we are the same size. Only difference? I'm about 9 inches shorter. I exercise at least five times a week and I would not -- even on my worse days -- call myself fat. So, what the heck are we doing here? Again, crushing body images of women all around America. After all, if a woman who has been a model for more than eight years is told she's too fat to work, what does that say about the rest of us? Want to know how I really feel about what we are teaching both young and grown women about their bodies? Please read (or re-read) my post from February: "Love your body -- and build on its strengths." 
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I don't even know where to start! Words are just failing me, RL should be boycotted! There should be some kind of law or regulations in place to prevent this. False advertising maybe? Raising a generation of girls to hate themselves for something they have no control over. Anyone remember when Calista Flockheart started this BS. Everyone was shocked at how thin she was, any other actress that stood near her dwarfed her, I defy anyone to find an actress now that looks larger. They all felt they had to compete with her anorexia, and now it's the new normal. This is beyond tho...people are NOT animae! My Lord to expect an actual person to look like a Brats doll is insane!
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