FitFlops for Kids: Should pre-teens be worrying about how toned they are?
Society today places a hell of a lot of importance on the physical appearance. Airbrushing runs rampant in the media, celebrity bikini pictures are a surefire way of selling magazines, and everywhere the notion that attractiveness equals happiness is forced upon us- perhaps most obviously displayed in the TV show Next Top Model. As well as the ‘slim is pretty’ line, we’re also fed the one that ‘it’s about being healthy and happy with who you are’. This one may seem more responsible, if it weren’t for the fact that this can be interpreted with many shades of grey.
Sure, it’s good to be healthy, eat well and cut down on saturated fats. The problem is that this lifestyle gets confused with the variety of conflicting messages we receive from varying sources. There’s a constant barrage of misinformation from people purporting to advocate this lifestyle, such as ’eat healthy breakfast cereals’ (to lose weight) or snack on high sugar cereal bars to stay trim, so it’s no wonder people are confused and anxious. In the last couple of years we’ve seen a huge rise in eating disorders amongst young people, with kids as young as five years old starting to become obsessed with their appearance and suffer from anorexia and bulimia.
Considering these statistics I think it’s very irresponsible for FitFlop to create footwear targeting the youth market, especially considering all their advertising features leggy looking models with impossibly slender thighs, the kind of images that will have impressionable tweens running to the mirror in tears. Read more…
