Insano alien models

Ok, I am not a feminist fascist in any way, shape or form but I feel compelled to post something about the ABSOLUTE CRAZINESS surrounding Ralph Lauren and those pictures at the moment.

It is incredible that a high fashion label like Ralph Lauren think that those girls in the 'extreme' airbrushed picture look good (I am LOVING how people are referring to the other as the 'untouched' image – yeh RIGHT – they are both airbrushed to death, but the 'extreme' version takes the concept to new levels). I love high fashion and I love the way that many of these 5'10", size 8 models look when they walk down the runway or appear in adverts. They are a different breed – plenty of these girls are perfectly healthy and do not have eating disorders, but are just lucky enough to have outstanding genes. However, there are times when you see girls in magazines and on the catwalk (usually the latter in my experience – perhaps because they're not airbrushed healthy!) where they look emaciated, gaunt and plain old just-too-thin. But what Ralph Lauren have done to these pictures makes the models look like aliens. It is so extreme it is laughable. I even wonder if those who are dealing with eating disorders and therefore may be particularly sensitive to such images would find the 'extreme' picture something to aspire to, in preference to the 'untouched' image.

What is perhaps most alarming is that these pictures have obviously been through various stages of approval and sign off – one assumes at a high level – in order to appear in the marketing campaign. Which must mean that more than one person within the organisation thought these were acceptable advertising images. AGAIN – didn't they learn their lesson the first time?

It all comes back to the same thing. The media (a nebulous concept I agree, but I think it unfair to limit the reference here to just fashion media) promoting an increasingly fantastical and totally unobtainable standard for women. It is remarkable that designers need to airbrush a supermodel such that her head is larger than her waist in order to promote their product. It is even more remarkable that they believe this to be a marketing strategy that will work. Or is the sad thing that it actually might??

What say you? Do they print this tosh because it actually works in getting women to buy their clothes, or have they gone too far this time?