Facial beauty index

[imomus]

It started when the organizers of the Madrid Fashion Week announced that Audrey Marnay would not be allowed to appear on their catwalks.

"REAL women will rejoice at the news," reported the London Times. "Audrey Marnay is being pushed off the catwalk. The organisers of Madrid Fashion Week have announced that they are banning her to develop a more healthy image for the event this month. If Marnay does turn up, she will be classed as a freak in need of medical help.

"Madrid city council, which sponsors the fashion week, has ordered that every model on show must have a facial beauty index (FBI) of no more than 0.6. The average woman in Spain has an FBI of 0.5. Audrey Marnay's FBI has been measured by doctors; she scores a highly abnormal 1.0."

A week later, UK culture secretary Tessa Jowell lent her support to Madrid city council's decision. "It's categorically not an issue for government regulation," Jowell was reported as saying, in an article headlined Jowell joins condemnation of Audrey Marnay. "It is, however, an issue of major concern for young girls who feel themselves inferior when compared to the beautiful young women on the catwalk. They all want to look as beautiful as Audrey Marnay and see beauty in those terms. And I think it's fair to say that when they wake up in the morning, the first thing most 15- and 16-year-old girls do is feel their faces."

Okay, I'll come clean. If you followed those links you'll see that I've substituted the name Audrey Marnay (who happens to be my favourite model) for "stick-thin catwalk models", "skinny models", "unhealthily thin girls" and "waif-like models". And I've substituted the fictional FBI (facial beauty index) for BMI (body mass index).

I find these calls to ban "unrepresentative" or "abnormal" models from the catwalk farcical not only because I'm a thin person myself, or because I'm an artist whose work is often about beauty, and who doesn't think that art should restrict itself to merely average levels of beauty. It's also because I'm fundamentally anti-rockist. In other words, I'm against "keeping it real", and I think that claims that a catwalk show, or even a street fashion shoot, are only valid when they're "based on a true story" are overblown. (If rockism is Stanislavskian, all about realism, anti-rockism is Brechtian, about drawing attention to the fact that all spectacle produces illusion.)

The "based on a true story" thing has come up a couple of times on Neomarxisme, once when Marxy took shots at popular TV (then film) phenomenon Densha Otoko, Train Man, disputing claims that the drama was based on a true story, and once when we talked about how sumo wrestling was fixed. I raised the issue myself recently when I reported how an ex-girlfriend had told me she'd been photographed for Cutie magazine's street fashion section, but been styled (a lacy white thing had been added under her denim jacket to spice the picture up). I was disappointed to learn this, but didn't think it was finally very important. All street fashion is styled in the sense that it's sifted. And street fashion is always aspirational. Nobody really wants to know what the average person on the street is wearing. Nobody wants people selected at random, or for their averageness.

A fascinating insight into Japanese street fashion is provided by a new feature on Pingmag (this site is currently hotter than July). It's exactly the kind of first person, investigative reporting I'm always telling Marxy to try, based on simply asking people questions and trying to "see with" them when they answer. (That "seeing with" is called verstehen in sociology.)

"What is in this green bag next to your photo equipment?" Ryotaro Bordini Chikushi asks one of the Omote Sando street photographers. "Please don’t take a photo of that! This is confidential," the lensman replies. "We are sponsored by a shoe-maker today, so we look out for interesting boys and ask them to wear those shoes with their outfit for our street-shooting."

There we have it. Some product placement is going on in Japanese street photography (although I can guarantee that Shoichi Aoki's magazines Street, Tune and FRUiTS don't do that). Even when it isn't, it would be hard to say that these photographs are "based on a true story"; kids parade up and down Omote Sando in their carefully-selected clothes, hoping to be stopped and photographed. The scouts select those who best suit the house style of their own magazines. It's already highly theatrical.

The "based on a true story" claim cannot be removed entirely; there's definitely emotional power to be drawn from the fact that "real" people are wearing clothes of their own choosing "on the street", just as even a catwalk show gains emotional power from the fact that actual flesh and blood women, rather than dummies or robots, are wearing the creations of designers. But the relationship with reality here isn't contractual ("That's not true! You made false claims and let us down!") but metaphorical. And aspirational. If only reality were like that, we coo, sounding for all the world like a teenage girl waking up in the morning and feeling her face.

Politics, ideally, comes from below. But beauty comes from above. It will never be democratic.

Comments

[olamina.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for writing on this.
As much as I am concerned with overly thin women being held up as the highest standard of beauty, I am not interested in the "real women" representation propaganda being spewed. There is no one "true story" and I bristle at the idea that anyone would want to push that idea forth.

[bricology.livejournal.com]

I find it shocking that a minister or city council presumes that regulating fashion models is sensible governance, or that it addresses issues of positive self-image among women. What is the commercial fashion and beauty industry if not elitist? As you pointed out, which is more elitist -- a thin physique or a model's face? -- a $5 shirt from a thrift store or a $500 shirt from Junya Watanabe? Are they next going to ban clothing over $100, as higher-priced clothing causes depression and anxiety among the poor?

It also amazes me that anyone misses the the fact that, by banning one end of the body-type spectrum, they've begged the question as to why the other end should't be banned as well. After all, there are now more overweight people on earth than there are emaciated ones, and we're all aware of the health risks inherent in obesity. Will they ban models with a BMI of over 25? Lawsuits would surely ensue. But by picking on the other end of the spectrum, they get to discriminate with the tacit support of women who secretly envy thinner women.

[rhodri.livejournal.com]

It also amazes me that anyone misses the the fact that, by banning one end of the body-type spectrum, they've begged the question as to why the other end shouldn't be banned as well.

Well, perhaps the reason that people have failed to fully engage with this argument is because catwalks and magazines are noticably un-awash with obese models chomping on battered sausages. This isn't an argument you can lazily turn through 180º. Although It's possible that I'm just not attending the right fashion shows, of course.

My friends-list on LiveJournal contains several talented, beautiful and in many cases thin women who beat themselves up about their weight on a daily basis. It's tedious, tragic and upsetting to read. These aren't women who "secretly" envy thinner women. Most women I know who experience this envy don't keep it "secret". It dominates their lives and rules their every waking moment. I'm not quite such a philistine that I fail to understand imomus's argument that this is an artistic medium, it should be extreme, unattainable. But there's a difference between striving for the unattainable and gaining from it, and forcing yourself to throw up in restaurant toilets before crying your eyes out. Of course it's not Marnay's problem, but the mental health of millions of people has been skewed in a horribly unhealthy direction, and to pretend that this isn't a far bigger problem than censorship at Madrid Fashion Week is, frankly, obscene.

The reason that the idea of regulating the size of fashion models is ludicrous, and that comments like Jowell's seem so absurd is that they are utterly impotent, and come far too late to have any effect. So don't worry, the mags and catwalks won't change, and neither will the overwhelming feeling of misery and failure experienced by millions of women of a perfectly normal size.

rhodri is 35, and his excessive weight and hideousness only annoy him slightly.

[(Anonymous)]

A friend of mine went to a gallery in one of the shopping malls in Shinjuku the other day. The presentation said something about "we gave eight female photographers a camera each and let them take pictures of anything they wanted for a day". The exhibit was sponsored by Nike, and it turned out that all people that had focus were wearing Nike shoes. My friend asked one of the photographers why, and she said it was purely coincidental.

[it-certainly-is.livejournal.com]

well, i guess i'm resigned to the scrap heap, then. my ugly genes don't correspond with the objective reality of beauty. thanks, momus. i was always curious about where i and my non-skinny brethren's deep, vast, soul-destroying self-hatred comes from, but now i know. it's like a platonic form of beauty, y'know? it comes FROM ABOVE, wherever that is. and i'm not that. nope.

ps: rockism is inherantly exclusionary. a fashion show is inherantly exclusionary. with rockism it's music made after 1980/with samples or synthesizers/etc, and with fashion it's any woman weighing more than 120 pounds.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I think the idea of "above" is just "anything I couldn't do, but would like to". For instance, who would read "War and Peace" if they could write it themselves, and if it simply portrayed something exactly like the life they really led?

[gemima-obrien.livejournal.com]

Why were Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell hailed as supermodels in the 90s?

[wingedwhale.livejournal.com]

Let's all control women! We can judge women by their appearance. When people get mad about judging women by appearance, we can react by judging women by appearance.

Down with women. Their appearance will be judged and nobody will come out without flaming wreckage and "oh, just a salad and water, thanks."

[(Anonymous)]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClM3GnhuK_g

Irony

[jermynsavile.livejournal.com]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/Story/0,,1798990,00.html

Perhaps Tessa Jowell would like to experiment with thinner role models as a means of tackling the 'crisis'? Fashion models for instance? Obviously the current crop aren't thin enough.

[ataxi.livejournal.com]

I'm sympathetic to your objections, but if "beauty comes from above", then why does the standard of female beauty change so much over time? This standard is complex, anyone would agree - social factors play a part. There is a potential benefit to be had from changes to the standard that more closely align the image of a person with optimal health and the image of beauty.

The relevance of the standards applied to supermodels to our more generic standards of beauty - Miss World contestants, say, or daytime soap stars, even porn stars is questionable.

Perhaps if there's an argument to be made it would be that this new Spanish policy is hamfisted - a technocratic measure with no real hope of success, that might even backfire in health terms.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

if "beauty comes from above", then why does the standard of female beauty change so much over time?

Oh, I don't say "above" is immune to change. But as an ectomorph (and someone attracted mostly to other ectomorphs) I'm rather glad that ectomorphs are considered "elegant" (and fuckable) rather than "bags'o'bones" (and spurn-worthy). My perspective is not an ahistorical or disinterested one.

[geeveecatullus.livejournal.com]

""Madrid city council, which sponsors the fashion week, has ordered that every model on show must have a facial beauty index (FBI) of no more than 0.6. The average woman in Spain has an FBI of 0.5. Audrey Marnay's FBI has been measured by doctors; she scores a highly abnormal 1.0."

that kind of reminded me of the book Facial Justice.

[constructionism.livejournal.com]

How can the rest of us get our FBIs measured?

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

Your point holds if one thinks of a fashion show as an exhibition of beauty or ideal bodies. If one thinks of fashion models as having a practical purpose (to demonstrate clothes) it makes more sense to have models who more closely match the sizes and body types of the average person than to have the usual size-8 anorexi-chic waifs. And nobody says they have to be ugly (unless one equates beauty exclusively with implausible thinness).

[beketaten.livejournal.com]

The clothing on display in these fashion shows is not only largely out of the price-range of the average person, but it also consists of clothing that those same average people would find "impractical" for their everyday purposes and as such are a chance for the designer to kind of have fun and create his/her own fantasy for entertainment.

[beketaten.livejournal.com]

I am totally with you on this. I am naturally built like that and all my life, I have been the subject of questions about my health. This is due to the awareness of things like eating disorders, which is partly good in that it can provide more understanding to those who really need help, but damaging in that people begin to find it "everywhere".
The biggest health problem facing the world right now is obesity, and if they're going to ban anyone's weight, they'd best start at the higher numbers.

Obesity vs. Insanity

[(Anonymous)]

Obesity is a physical health problem and few people are fat due to mental health issues related to media and social pressure. Nobody is reading vogue and then running out to buy a case of twinkies. They are overweight because of poor diet and exercise. Obesity is really a straw man that has nothing to do with this issue.

So many of the women I know have issues with their bodies and while it's ultimately their own responsibility to develop some self esteem and deal with it, sometimes it seems the fashion industry is doing their best to keep them from getting there.

Censorship is a bit heavy handed but I can't but sympathize with their intentions. Maybe they should have a quota on scrawny girls instead of an outright ban. I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more T & A.

[desant012.livejournal.com]

All the models I"ve ever associated with, by word or otherwise, have been coke fiends of the highest order. I'm surprised nobody's mentioned that - there are some naturally waifish women, but honestly, staying thin is all cocaine. sometimes heroin. They're "occupational drugs".

Which is to say, for a normal woman to achieve what they see on the runway, they have to be what ... 6'5" and inhale a shit-load of drugs?

Art is one thing, but fashion in this style is pure marketing - if it were just for the art, it'd take place in private galleries, not huge trade shows full of vendors, PR, etc., like your usual computer or consumer electronics shows.

[beketaten.livejournal.com]

It's for art (ie. public, other designers, celebrities who might be interested in the concepts) and for the buyers to take note of what a designer is capable of, seeing as most of the clothing displayed therein would not be worn by most people under normal circumstances.

[framework.livejournal.com]

Why, though, is extreme thinness (and height!) considered the highest level of beauty? I can understand the argument that art does not need to reflect "real life" but can instead be used to create ideals, but there are plenty of short, heavier-weight, extremely beautiful women.

I don't buy into the notion that the fashion industry causes or inspires eating disorders. When I had one, my immediate goal was to become so repulsively thin that the men who assaulted and harassed me would leave me alone. My long-term goal was gradual suicide, to starve myself to death. It would have been completely horrifying to think that I was becoming MORE attractive, or model-esque, by losing weight!

I'm not sure that an eating disorder is ever REALLY about how anyone looks or why the tendency was to ban extremely thin models rather than to include more heavier ones in the average fashion show. I WOULD like to see more of a variety in body type, but because these events must happen back-to-back, with last minute replacements and changes, it makes it easier on everyone backstage to have a "standard size" person so that all of the clothes could be worn by anyone just in case someone doesn't show up.

[bricology.livejournal.com]

"Why, though, is extreme thinness (and height!) considered the highest level of beauty?"

But I don't think that anyone is asserting that it is "the highest level of beauty"; it's merely what is most often used for runway models. Being up on a runway, with the audience's heads at the models' knee-level or thereabouts, makes any model look heavier. Just like the camera, the runway adds 10 pounds to any woman, and photos taken of them on the runway, doubly so. By using thinner models, designers/stylists make their clothes seem more flattering.

Re: the FBI -- it's merely an attempt to canonify facial beauty, but it in no way correlates to the BMI. As you say, there are countless women who are shorter and heavier and as beautiful as any model. Even the women held up today as the "most beautiful", such as Angelina Jolie, couldn't make it as runway models; they're not right for the role. And many of the women I find most attractive -- such as Elina Lowensohn -- defy both of these standards.

[trini-naenae.livejournal.com]

Wait. They're banning a model because she's too beautiful? As in she was born incredibly beautiful, no plastic surgery involved, and they're banning her, because she's too beautiful?

I am DYING of laughter.

If they want to appeal to the "average" woman, they should show a wide variety of very beautiful models. Show some very curvy models. Show some very slender models. Show some very beautifully athletic models. Show models with show different forms of exquisite beauty.

Who says there is only one definition of a beautiful woman anyways?

They're crazy. I'll have to read the comments later. I still can almost not believe this. It's hysterical, that's what it is.

[nicepimmelkarl.livejournal.com]

hallo, feste punze. du bist suess.

an army of one

[mamarama.livejournal.com]

Standards should be high in artistic fields. But as within any academy, once you've learned the rules you can also learn how to break them.

No matter your personal size or shape the key is to see what's going on in the world around you, what's going on with your body, and to do what you can with the resources you're given.

Be thin. Be fat. Just remember it's a poor artist who blames her brush.

[(Anonymous)]

Some people will not rest until everyone in the world is equally bland looking, equally poor, equally dull in mind. It's not just the beauty in nature that's un-democratic: different people have different levels of intelligence, ambition, patience, etc.

When the state steps in to help cover for one group's shortcomings, it will inevitably be asked to help out with the rest. The problem with any levelling scheme is that the state is going against nature. The state cannot make all people into skinny models, but it can 'fire' the skinny ones; it cannot make all people intelligent, but it can get rid of the intelligent ones; it can't make everyone rich, but it can make everyone equally poor.

-henryperri

[svenskasfinx.livejournal.com]

Politics, ideally, comes from below. But beauty comes from above. It will never be democratic.

It reminds me..."...there's no justice in matters of beauty, its stupid to even look..." (I've actually seen recently (4-6 months ago) a referance to "Ticket" in an artical about beauty)

I don't assume that there is justice and fairness in the standards of beauty there are, and I don't really know how to see that its "fair" that ultra naturally thin females should be tossed out from getting catwalk jobs, as if their thinness itself could be blamed, rather than the designer's attitudes of the recent 20-30 years--

I've never been insecure having a "Betty Page" body..(up until recent times where my muscle mass has taken a dive because of extended sickness) although I rarely have anything to be "proud to show"..

One of the many articals I've translated was actually from last year or so about the fact that if you are born atractive and tall (possibly thinner) then you, according to the standards of the culture, probably are well off and never have to worry about a job, or a place to rest your head.. that things will be much easier for you, if you are born ATRACTIVE and TALL by the standards of the culture.

Notably this discrimnation of the larger size, should only come to backlash towards anyone who is outside of the "norm". Even if one is thinner than their "norm".. those who decide they will impose a "standard"..I still blame the designers as Paul and Friends "Extra Large" is a Swedish 38.. possibly an American size 10..

There was no "Human Face Index" was there? I was so disapointed ;) I needed some kind of "standard" to measure myself against.. now there is nothing but a bag of empty, emptiness... oh beauty you empty bag of emptiness.. why do you deny me a standard? (excuse my outburst)..

[bricology.livejournal.com]

FWIW: http://www.beautyanalysis.com/index2_mba.htm

(Fool's) Gold Standard

[fenestration.livejournal.com]

“A woman must continually watch herself. She is almost continually accompanied by her own image of herself. Whilst she is walking across a room or whilst she is weeping at the death of her father, she can scarcely avoid envisaging herself walking or weeping. From earliest childhood she has been taught and persuaded to survey herself continually.” John Berger – Ways of Seeing

The problem is not thinness in itself. It is the saturation of images of thinness. If our self-images were constructed from the people around us alone then we would have difference and divergence. But we see far more images of people than people and, even more importantly, these images are of course far more valued as a (fool’s) gold standard of beauty.

Beauty is only skin deep. Or at least only as thin as a gorgeously glossy magazine page. These modern day alchemists have found the philosopher’s stone. Anna Wintour is not size zero but her magazine promotes the catwalks that promotes this year zero. It reminds me of the corset extremes of the 18th century when the ideal was a waist of 40cm diameter and smaller. Size Zero and other such vanity sizing is not new – what is new is its dominance.

So, banning ultra-thin models is a gesture that causes a conversation. But this conversation is a whisper in a canyon of images. John Berger again: “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.” Being ultra-thin is as unhealthy as ultra-fat. But we do have a choice what images we create and publish.

[maudelynn.livejournal.com]

i was really saddened when i read about this banning of thinner models. I am naturally about the size of the gal in the above photos. i do not have an eating disorder, do drugs or over exercise. according to my doctor i am about as healthy a patient as he has ever had. according to him my body and face look and perform like one of a 27 year old, i am nearly 38. am i really the exception to a rule? i don't think so.

the odd thing about my size, according to physicians who have done tests and such, is that it was originally put into my genes by several things. one is simply that i am from a line of very small irish folk, the other being that my most recent ancestors were so poor all we could eat were things that could be stored. meat and sweets were luxuries we rarely indulged in. red beans and rice was a staple in my home growing up.

i am so tired of seeing the term 'real women.'
real women have curves, real women are a size 10" etc etc etc. What? Am I FAUX?

Yes, I understand there has been a lot of horrible treatment to women of larger sizes, but you know what? i have breasts that are considered small.. should all small breasted women call for a ban on large breasted ones? Because believe me, the media pushes the idea of larger breasts = more beautiful to the point that women butchering their own bodies and placing plastic in them is the most non medically needed surgery performed in the world today, followed by nose jobs. Oh, let's ban all small nosed people, no more Brad Pitt films for us. This all reminds me of a twilight Zone episode.

Instead of banning any one body type why can't we embrace all body types? Until we start showing ALL body types are acceptable this discrimination against ALL body types will not end.

[charissa75.livejournal.com]

Very well said and I agree totally.
I am considered skinny and get lots of namecalling and people always asume I am not healthy. Though my physician says I am perfectely healthy. I have always been like this and can't gain wait. I Sometimes feel so unfeminine especially when I read these kinds of messages.

[butterflyrobert.livejournal.com]

Usually when people say they are "keepin' it real", they are usually working exceptionally hard to appear un-pretentious.

To quote myself, "There's nothing more honest than a good lie."

And aesthetics are the most gorgeous lie of all, making them absolute truth.

facial beauty index: hookum

[(Anonymous)]

before i even read any other message in response: facial beauty index--> doesn't exist. nope.

Re: facial beauty index: hookum

[(Anonymous)]

body fat percentage. waist to hip ratio. ---facial beauty index-fbi---bunk.

[ruhue.livejournal.com]

that's it. no more imomus. i'm sick of the bluster.
i'm not even going to bother passing on what you said to the millions of girls out there feeling like shit right now because of those "poor things" on the runway and in fashion mags.

girls are drowning, drowning in your message.
and you all just don't give a shit.

There is a Facial Beauty Index

[fenestration.livejournal.com]

Too much wasted time on the Internet. Should be working!

Here is a site offering a Beauty Face Report (http://www.beautyrank.com/gallery.html) with a services link that I am too cowardly to follow.

I fould that site from this Marquardt Beauty Analysis (http://goldennumber.net/beauty.htm) page that contorts mathematics onto the human face. A case of one and one adding up to much less than two, perhaps.

[polychromatica.livejournal.com]

Maybe I am totally misinterpreting the intensions of those who put this rule in place, but I don't buy how you have framed this as an attack on Beauty and an attempt to make fashion more representative. I don't think that the point of these measures is to force the fashion industry to be more "realistic" as much as to take sick girls off a pedestal.

Now, I have no problem with thin girls (or boys) generally, so don't take this as a personal attack. Seriously, maybe it's my socialization showing, but I think thin bodies are nice too. But eating disorders are not ok. Neither is being a coke fiend. Models are well known for going to the most extreme measures of self-abuse to maintain their weight and I can't fault the organizers of Madrid Fashion Week for not condoning that.

I'm not saying that using a Body Mass Index is really the best way to achieve those goals, but I think the sentiment is great. This is a slightly misguided step in the right direction. Just as truck drivers in the US have to get a certain number of hours a sleep a day to stay alert, I don't see how it is at all unreasonable to require that models maintain their health, otherwise they will continue to cause damage to themselves and to millions of other females.

Designers and artists should not work in a vacuum - they have to consider the moral ramifications of their projects, included the demands that they place on their models and how the image they project will affect other people. Context is very important. Exactly what this means is a tricky thing and I can't say that I have the One Correct Answer, but to act like it's only about art and beauty and fantasy is disingenuous and fashion has gotten away with it too long (many others are guilty of this also, but we'll stick with fashion for today). I'm not saying that the models need to be any uglier or that they need to start hiring fatties, but some standards should be set. Unhealthy is not ok and people need to stop pretending like it is.

I think the issue should be able *how* to decide what is healthy and what isn't.

[lisa-andersen.livejournal.com]

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