Sadiq Khan shouldn't be able to tell us what is an unhealthy body

[feellikeahugefailure]

So the London Mayer has banned adverts with “Unhealthy or Unrealistic” body images. Doesn't this just all feed into people these days unaware of what a healthy body image is? This woman is in great shape and looks very healthy to me.

Sorry if there has been a post on this, I find the advanced search here not that great.

Oh OP

Can't spell mayor. Write craps blog. Doesn't understand body shaming.
What a loss to the NHS you are.

I don't think the model is too skinny at all - just healthy and slim. Airbrushed though, certainly.

I do have a problem with adverts using airbrushed models to flog shitty diet products though - I believe it is both making false claims and body-shaming.

So YABU.

Plus, when I clicked on the link, I assumed it would be an article about what Sadiq Khan has actually said/done - not some well-being blog.

Sadiq Khan has just gone up in my estimation another notch. Thanks for voting him in, London :)

Last summer there was a social media hashtag thing of #mybodyisabikinibody where women of all shapes and sizes posted pictures of themselves in bikinis. I thought that was a positive and empowering campaign. Telling overweight and obese women that their bodies are not disgusting and that they are allowed on the beach does not promote obesity. I think some people believe that the solution to obesity is shaming fat people. Being ashamed of yourself doesn't usually motivate people to lose weight. They have to feel that they are worth looking after in order to manage to lead a healthy lifestyle. And we are all ready to visit the fecking beach!

Men haven't come under equal levels of pressure to conform to stringent and rigid body ideals and they haven't been judged as harshly on aesthetic standards as women. However, over recent years there has been increasing levels of pressure on men to adhere to high standards of physical attractiveness and I don't think that's a good thing either.

No one is saying that pictures of good looking people are inherently offensive, but the implication that you must look perfect to go to the beach is damaging to us all.

splendide its not 'bizarre' at all.......health professionals worldwide all seem to agree that an overstuffed human body is unhealthy!!

thats why its correct to say we are losing sight of how a human body should actually look
not bizarre at all

Well played Sadiq, well played

" the physique of the woman in the beach body add is more achievable than that of jess Ennis"

No for a lot of people it isn't.

That model is about 5' 10", and has the long, stretched out body and torso proportions to match.

It's not a remotely achievable look for a lot of heights or builds.

It's the wording that needs banning/that ad rather than the model.

Totally this. I agree that advert should have been banned it was the company have been found to be bot wholly truthful with the nutritional content either.

I don't however mind seeing models like the one mentioned.

Athletes advertise all sorts of shit. Vitamin supplements, that crap you should sprinkle on your breakfast. The implication being that they do it and it's part of why they are fit and healthy. When in fact, it's got nothing to do with it. They don't use unfit people to advertise vitamins do they?

Lots of people are sucked in by it. There is no difference between this type of advert and 'sprinkle this seed mix on your breakfast and you could be like me too'

Obviously anyone suggesting this is about religion is moronic but I find it scarily pathetic that an advert can shame anyone.

"Rubbish, an active lifestyle and a healthy diet will keep people slim...."

Slim or slimmer perhaps, but many women wouldn't have that sort of toned body just by walking to work and eating home mades soup.

"Problem is more once you start getting fat and eating modern hyper palatable food its hard to reverse the process."

Ah, now we re talking. Instead of shaming individuals by holding up unrealistic, airbrushed images juxtaposed with misleading messages perhaps the food industry churning out addictive and unhealthy processed foods could be challenged so that some of the structural reasons for unhealthy body weight could be addressed? Oh wait, the company supplying this processed food product is part of the very industry.

"But anyway this is just a diversion, his overarching aim is getting women to cover themselves sneaking in under the guise of ' we must all be careful not to upset fat people'." You know this how? Please elaborate.

Erm isn't it more about the airbrushed image than simply a thin tall woman being used?

Airbrushing does produce a unrealistic body; if it didn't then there would be a model with that body type who could have been photographed as she is. But there isn't is there.

How can he actually do this though? We have laws that govern adverts. If the advertisement is within those laws on what grounds can it be banned?

Who gives him the right to decide what is acceptable?

re my ribs comment - i didnt mean to offend, and i dont mean to be'skinny shaming' (i'd love to look like her! just never going to happen) apologies to anyone i offended

i think that 'styled with lash inserts' or 'styled with some natural hair extensions' should be banned as well

You should not be allowed to alter digitally or otherwise the actual thing you are selling!

I haven't been 'beach body ready' since about 1987, but hey, I still go to the beach because I don't pay any attention to shit adverts like this, and couldn't give a shit what anyone looks like.

Fyi OP, from the talk guidelines...

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Erm isn't it more about the airbrushed image than simply a thin tall woman being used?

Genuine question. Can somebody confirm that it was airbrushed 100%. Also I know people who have met her and say she looks like that.

As at the time the model herself denied it. Everyone seems to be assuming it, but has their been any confirmation?

Is an advert featuring an Olympic champion body-shaming those of us who will never (or never did) achieve that look? If not, what's the difference?

Nothing wrong with a photo of an Olympic athlete. The problem is when that athlete is so photoshopped that they don't actually look like themselves any more.

Body shaming is a massive problem because the adverts say "hey. You should looked like him / her" when the model themselves do the actually look like that.

The owner of the media in which advertising is displayed has a right to accept or refuse any ad they wish.

I'd personally be in favour of ads like this having to state, prominently, whether either the image or the model had undergone any artificial enhancement (photoshopping or surgery).

PS embarrassing misspelling of "mayor" in OP's link!

Can somebody confirm that it was airbrushed 100%.

Look at her hair, there isn't 1 stray strand. Nothing is out of place. Her skin is perfectly even. Of course it's airbrushed.

I find it scarily pathetic that an advert can shame anyone

It's not just 1 advert though, we surrounded by them all the time, and it might be easier to shrug it off as we get older but there are young girls out there aiming to look like these models that just don't exist. Everything they look at TV, magazines, social media, our whole culture says this is what perfect looks like and they don't know where to stop.

UpWith - That doesn't prove that her size and shape have been altered though. I don't think there's much wrong with tidying up an image, although obviously a lot wrong with altering someone's size or shape.

all photos for commercial purposes are going to be touched up to the extent of getting the light right, regularising tone and colour etc, surely? It'll be a case of extent to which the image has been altered, e.g. actually making the waist smaller etc