French fashionista's are shocked by the latest French Elle issue. It has featured a naked woman and also an actress without make-up but this time they have taken on a different route. French Elle have put a Plus-size Tara Lynn on the cover of the magazine. This was decided due to statistics that the majority of the French population were overweight. Although this may be the beginning of a revolution to use larger or natural models in magazines, Insiders tell the Observer that "it is not a trend it is a gimmick" a pastiche of larger models and this would just be for one edition; the magazine will go back to using skinny models in their issues. Many people believe that the French will not see larger bodies as an acceptable look in the fashion world.
Audiences may feel self- conscious about their appearance, by having a slim/slender model on the cover of a magazine may encourage young women to try to feel more confident; by purchasing the same style of clothing that the model wears or by following advice on how to loose weight. However this may backfire as magazines edit their images so that the models look thinner, when a young self- conscious female looks at these images they may be determined to look like the Fixed model they are looking at in magazines. This could lead to depression, starvation and then on to severe illnesses such as Anorexia and Bulimia. The audience theory that i would connect this to is the Hypodermic Needle theory. The uses and gratifications that magazines show allows the audience to think that they Must be like the the model on the magazine, the audience will become more passive rather than active because they see the glamour and success rather than the artificial aspects of it.
Although plus size models such as Tara Lynn and Whitney Thompson (America's nest top model winner of cycle 10) are attractive and successful despite their weight, audiences may not find plus size models appealing. I think that institutions do not find larger models attractive because the fashion world is dominated by skinny models, due to it being "attractive" as opposed to large models they use the popularity to sell to audiences. I also believe that institutions continue to use skinny models in their products; such as magazines, because they are selling what the audience does not have. Magazines use skinny models in their pages however they are edited so in reality the models do not look like what they appear to be in magazines. If magazine companies were to allow plus size models to be on the edition, then the audience may not buy the magazines because they are selling something that the audience already have. By keeping a constantly using an artificial image in their magazine, the audience will always try to become that, this creates an equilibrium. The fashion industry are the only society that has the power to change the way things are organised, however because they are making money out of it and they have no reason to change it they will not change it.
