The World And Modeling Industry Still Isn’t Ready For Ashley Graham
People Online reported last week that super model Naomi Campbell was defending Ashley Graham against attacks about her size, on Sway’s Universe
In the article, Campbell was on the Sway Calloway show on Thursday, when she was asked about Cheryl Tiegs’ comments where she thought that Ashley Graham looked unhealthy.
Here’s footage about Naomi Campbell talking about plus sized models.
Cheryl Tiegs is also a former model and a fashion designer, who is considered by the industry to be the first true super model.
Naomi Campbell disagrees with Cheryl Tiegs' comments about Ashley Graham https://t.co/2SVCaIRZlz pic.twitter.com/mZzUk5c349
— People (@people) April 1, 2016
In a near play-by-play series of articles, The Inquisitr documented the back and forth between Graham and Tiegs, starting with Ashley’s response to Tiegs’ comment, followed by another article about her interview with E! Online, where she says that Tiegs never apologized (directly) for her comment.
And around the same time, The Inquisitr also reported that both the ABC and NBC Networks, had “banned” a Lane Bryant commercial for what they claim were certain indecency issues, which featured Graham and other plus-sized models, which is shown in the referred to article.
@CherylTiegs I agree with you! Seems like being fat and obesity is welcomed in america than any other country.
— Serena Torres (@serkimt) March 3, 2016
This is a good example of what going full circle looks like, where even when she was pushed to the brink and forced to apologize, Tiegs still appears to have a secure grip on her original statement, which ends up making the original not appear genuine.
Regarding the issue of health, further complicates the issue as far as giving some merit to those who say she isn’t healthy or as healthy as someone who works out regularly, which Ashley Graham quickly shoots down in an article by MIC, where she talks about the assumption that she doesn’t work out at all.
Ashley Graham has had to deal with this kind of criticism for the entirety of her career and has somehow been able to find some way to defend herself against it. She’s even been on the offensive about the plus-size term, which she talked about on Ellen in February.
And even to some, Naomi Campbell might have put herself in a bit of a predicament, when she said on the Sway Calloway program that she “doesn’t know what she eats.”
Even Kate Upton showed her support for Ashley Graham’s images via E! Online.
It also doesn’t appear to end there however, as The Business Insider is one of the sources reporting on Ashley Graham’s response, over claims that her images have been altered for a men’s magazine. A broader view of what Ashley Graham feels about people’s opinions is likely generalized in a tweet from her official twitter account.
When everyone has something to say I be like..???????????????????????? via edward_makwana17 https://t.co/cU1nYDqopZ
— Ashley Graham (@theashleygraham) March 31, 2016
Even the Inquisitr covered this story and on the response from the photographer accused of the manipulation.
The Daily Mail compiled a collection of responses from fans who were debating the authenticity of the photos.
The accusation of image manipulation is complex because it does nothing but try to prove a point, for those who go after the modeling agencies for conforming to a standard that the plus-sized modeling industry is standing against, which is to force consumers to believe that woman can only be beautiful if they are slim, which they’re certainly right about to the extent that the modeling industry has been caught red-handed in the past, where they’ve photo-shopped images.
So the approach is more about the activism, with little regard to health whether it’s “plus-size” models or thin.
About the only thing she said to that was that her husband would “kill” her. But in an earlier part of the interview, she said that a model’s job is to sell products. So the question here might be, how much product is Ashley Graham’s image selling?
All of these factors still change in the industry. Certainly one could say that Ashley Graham’s plus-size image was more popular in a distant past, but the industry never changes in regard to them chasing the money.
And a wider level of acceptance over that, is never going to happen as long as the industry wants to make more. The activism will also have to accept that it will need to have a presence at all times, to fight body shaming because without it, Ashley Graham would likely be given a much harder time.
[Featured Photo by Evan Agostini | Invision/AP]
