To welcome but at the same time be concerned about transgender men modelling women's clothing?

[Normalisavariantofcrazy]

Sorry if the title is worded badly.

Basically in the news recently there have been stories of male to female transgender people becoming underwear and catwalk models.

Most of me thinks 'yay! Equality! Bring it on!'

However a small part of me, the bit that doesn't get how the process works, thinks these models do not represent an accurate female form - narrower hips, wider shoulders, undefined waist, the boyish figure that basically fashion designers seem to desire. Do the hormones trans people take create those features (hips especially) ??

Aibu to think these models give an unrealistic image of the female form?

(Saying that, a couple of the big models are utterly stunning facially!)

All models are an unrealistic image of the female form, though.

I certainly don't look like any of them.

Not that unrealistic if there are women with those forms. Even the ultra skinny still have female curves to an extent.

I am just wondering if this is aiding the super skinny waif look without the pressure of ensuring your female models are over a certain bmi

As above, plus catwalk clothes are often conceptual ideas that later become diluted to become highstreet fashion and often look quite bizarre! So im not sure I agree with your point.

sounds like a great idea to me, anyone should be able to be models

I read a very interesting article a while ago which suggested that the reason that models are so thin is the result of a large proportion of gay men in the fashion business. The theory was that they do not find womanly curves attractive so design clothes for women shaped like adolescent boys.

Maybe this is a logical progression. Some of them are stunningly beautiful though

I think it's great. We all know models are not any kind of reality of the female form for most of us. I think the height really helps. I used to borrow the clothes of a model friend of mine and she was 6 foot so thin while I... wasn't. If a 6 foot 5 trans model can look waif-like without being ill, fair play to them.

Well firstly they would be trangendered women not men
And secondly when has catwalk modeling ever given anyone a healthy body image??

Catwalk modelling is a load of shit that only eccentric rich weirdos and overtly camp gay men have any interest in so who cares what they do. Tbh seems a bit odd to use such models for underwear in catalogues etc though, just as you wouldn't expect a female body shape to model a pair of y-fronts.

I remember watching a series of project runway, where one of the designers was a very rarified, hyper-designery designer, and he was very, very upset to be issued with a model who actually had breasts - he said it made all the clothes hang wrong (and had a complete meltdown at the 'real woman challenge').

I think it's as the others say, the models and fashions on the catwalk in fashion weeks are art, rather than wearable clothes, so the models aren't expected to be any type of usual woman and the very particular body-type models (whether born male or female) are what the designers like.

Once it filters down into real clothes the models are more averagely shaped (almost), so I'm presuming transgender is more unusual.

The hormones that trans women take can change body shape into a more 'womanly' shape around the hips and waist. Depends on a range of factors though.

Also agree with what everyone else has said about all models having unrealistic body shapes :)

I agree, op.

I think that the 90s super models, Cindy Crawford et al, were a high point in the representation of woman's figures. They were all very slim but they also had hips & boobs. 'Ordinary' women could either realistically aspire to or recognise some aspect of the bodies of those models - slenderness, curves.

If the male form, generally triangular, is being projected as the ideal female form what are women supposed to think about themselves?

If the argument is that clothes hang better on triangular forms the answer is surely for designers to create clothes that hang well on women.

I'm assuming that the use of trans gender models is a fad, intended to grab more attention for the designer's show. It can't be that there isn't a large enough pool of female models to choose from.

I think that they represent the kind of female form that exists naturally in some women but not most women, so yes, they represent a particular aesthetic that fashion likes.

Transgender women don't have no curves at all though. I don't think it is correct to say that.myou can be slim but have shape.

So i agree with Coffee

Sorry, punctuation went wrong. Meant to say that it is not correct to say that transgender women are not shapely. You can be slim but still have shape and softness.

If the person is transgender, then it's polite to say transwoman.

There is Andre Prejik (?sp) who looks feminine but is not transgendered. He just got picked out.

And if a transwoman starts hormones at a young enough age, then the effects can be very powerful.

But modelling - how many women look like models?

I'd say that the main respect in which models differ from the average is in their height. Transgender women will tend to have an advantage there, won't they?

Orlando. Thanks. Did not know that

I doubt this will (or at least should) make anyone more uneasy than the modelling career of April Ashley in the 1960s.