The Height of Vanity

Why People Want to Grow Taller?

(Xindi Ouyang)

The people of China are are growing taller thanks to the popularity of leg-lengthening surgery. That’s right, we’re talking about a type of surgery that can make you at least two to three inches taller.

The details of the procedure, as you may imagine, are pretty gruesome.

First, the doctor breaks the tibia and fibula, or the bones of the lower leg. Then, a device comprised of two metal rings connected by extendable rods, called the fixator, is screwed into both ends of the broken bone through the skin.

About a week later, the stretching begins. The surgeon lengthens the fixator in small, two millimeter increments. This slowly pulls the broken bones apart, allowing new bone to grow and fill in the gap.

Barring complications such as infection where the fixator is attached to the bones and nerve injury, you can be back up and walking around on newly lengthened legs in about a year.

If all goes well, the three month bone-lengthening period is followed by another three to six months of bone strengthening. During this phase, the patient is confined to a wheelchair and must undergo physical therapy that’s typically described on leg lengthening websites as “extremely painful.”

75,000 yuan (US$11,000)

Leg-lengthening was first performed in the 1950s in the former Soviet Union, and then in China.

Taller Bodies in Indonesia

By E.I.J. 

Many Indonesian people are trying by all means to have taller body. This is evident from the number of ads that promise to elevate the body. From milk to body improvement tool obscure the results.

Since childhood, my parents gave my brother and I drugs and cheese with high growth bias. Many Indonesian people want to be high because they think height is important. They believe with a taller people have more confidence, easier to get a job, not easy to get teased, receive more respect, and women prefer tall men.


BEING TALL
  Alot of people want to be tall for numerous reasons, some want to be taller for sports reasons because in sports athletes are usually tall. On the male side a tall man would bring in more girls because women like tall men. It is studied that tall people earn more money than the average height person. Alot of people drink milk to strengthen the bones and make you grow taller. On a negative side for tall people, the clothes are bigger and harder to find, food intake is more and costly.

-AUSTIN CRISS

Height in Society. Growing or Shrinking?

With societal concerns growing more and more around personal appearance with new advancements in technology to allow for such changes, the world has become obsessed with becoming the ideal being regardless of the pain and torment they are willing to put themselves in. The knee surgery to increase a person's height is just one of those. The entire process take more than a year to complete and each person deals with intense pain on a daily basis. So what would make a person want to undergo such excruciating pain? I looked into the average height differences between the 1960's and present, and the average height these days has changed by one inch. We are one inch taller than the average male and females were only 50 years ago. 

Taking a look at my family, I have relatives that are in their 80's and 70's and when I was little, I always thought that they were so tall, but now that I am the same height, if not taller, I am noticing that my younger cousins are taking up all the air above our heads. It could be genes, but my generation of cousins are about the same height until a group of girls was born into the family, growing past us at an amazing rate. Many of my younger cousins who are barely in high school have already surpassed me in height and it is quite shocking. Did they put something in the chocolate milk after I left from elementary?

With this said, I would make sense that in today's business world that men and women who are taller, seem to be portrayed as being attractive. Who do you think you would choose to take more seriously? Your boss who is tall? Or your boss who is several inches shorter than you? This is the reason why I think more and more people want to get this intense surgery done. In addition to being perceived as being more attractive, to be taken seriously is just as important.

Jovanna Reyes

Plus-Size Modeling: The Industry, the Market, and Reflections as a Professional in the Image Industry

Ralph Lauren Hires First Plus-Size Model Robyn Lawley

Xindi Ouyang

It seems like just yesterday that Ralph Lauren was blasted for Photoshopping a model to appear emaciated, allegedly firing her for being too fat, and then apologizing for the gaffe. 

But now, the brand has taken a step in the other direction: it has hired its first plus-size model, Robyn Lawley. She’s a stunning 23-year-old brunette who has been called a groundbreaker for appearing on the covers of French Elle and VogueItalia. She stands at 6'2" and wears a size 12, and was hired by Ralph Lauren in April. 

Why Plus-Size market important?

Estimates state that approximately 40 to 60 percent of all U.S. women are petite, specifically 5'4'' and shorter. In addition, 60 percent of U.S. women wear a size 12 or larger, and 31 percent of U.S. women wear size 16 or larger. Erring on the conservative side, approximately 45 to 60 million U.S. women are represented in this special size market.

The women's apparel industry has been experiencing lackluster sales for the past several years. Retailers finally realized that opportunities for growth and increased sales were available in the plus-size market. 

"The reason there is so much growth in his part of the industry is simple: there os a lot of money to be made.""When looking at a firm's profit margin, there is no difference between skinny and fat dollars."

HUGE MARKET

 

In reality, not all women have 00-size like runaway models. Almost half the women in this country are size 12 or larger. In 1980s, percentage of women that is overweight is 16.8. It increases in 1990s to 24.5. In 1985, the average American woman wore a size 8. Today, they wear a size 14. Approximately 45 to 60 million U.S women are represented in this full figured shape. Thus, it is a huge market.

The fashion industry began to take notice for plus-sized market after having under-serviced this piece of the population for years. Women were increasingly demanding for better fashion and wanted to see models that more accurately reflected their own image. Lane Bryant, Donna Karan, Tommy Hilfiger, Anne Klein, Forever 21, and many more are joining the market.

-E.I.J-


Plus Size Market
Plus market has been around for years due to the womens clothing line Lane Bryant. That retailer target market was the plus size woman. 60 percent of women in the U.S. wear a size 12 or larger, 31 percent wear a size 16 and up. Retailers found the niche and growth opportunities in the plus size market.Firms noticed that there were overweight women under the age of 30, so they made more contemporary styles for better prices.

Austin Criss

A New Market for a new Woman
After reading the article, I was inspired and enlightened by the material that I read. The author was a model right out of college and she was lucky, she said. After reading her whole story, it dawned on me that she was indeed lucky because when she started modeling, the target market of plus size, petite women had been established.
I looked into who these women are and how big the proportion of society it contains according to the reading.
40-60 percent of women are 5'4" or shorter
60 percent of women wear a size 12 or larger
31 percent wear a size 16 or larger

also, from 1976 to 1980 the highest percentage of oversized women/men was 38.4. From 1988-1991, the highest percentage was 48. 7

Overall, these statistics are eye opening because our society believes that we need to be a size 2 in order to be a model and 5'10" or taller. This is quite refreshing to know that those that are those small sizes are actually out of the norm for our society and I believe this trend will continue for many many years to come.

Jovanna Reyes

A New Look at Beauty, Aging and Power

Aging Women

Most of us grew up learning that it was rude to ask a woman her age. But did we ask why this was so?


Our society tends to create unkind stereotypes of aging women that make it difficult for them to embrace their older selves. The following factors contribute to these stereotypes. From a biological standpoint, women may be considered less "useful" in society when they're not at the height of their fertility. Furthermore, they may be perceived as physically vulnerable and socially needy. These perceptions negatively affect older women's self image and may serve to impede their physiological and psychological well-being.


Could aging be good for women?
According to popular culture, women are terrified of growing old and fight it with everything they have, spending dollars each year on botox, liposuction,face creams, hair dyes, and health clubs. But research finds that women's body image actually become more positive as they move from their twenties and thirties into middle age.
Women's lives get better instead of worse as they grow older because of their tremendous psychological strengths. Women use their mental strengths to tackle the new problems that arise as they age.

Old age is not just about surviving, it's about flourishing. There is increasing evidence that most women feel a greater sense of fulfillment, self-actualization, reaching their peak.
---Xindi Ouyang

Embrace It

http://fortmillmagazine.com/articles/winter-needn't-be-gray%3A-planning-for-aging-america

Many women are afraid of aging process. We live in an era where there are unrealistic images of youthful, perfect looking models assemble in our mind. It pressured women to look perfect and youthful all the time. It resulted many women have self-conscious about their aging. They are a lot of products that women use to hide the signs of aging. Some dye their gray hairs, some use anti-wrinkles cream, some hide under makeup, some use Botox, or some go under surgery. French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier says we should be embrace our age, wrinkles and all. Every the signs of aging gives a piece of story.

Meaning of Wrinkle

On Your Forehead- you are a wisdom person and have a lot of experience

Around Your Mouth and Under Your Eyes- you are an expressive person and you show a lot emotion through your face.

 -E.I.J-


AGING

In the aging process some women are insecure about it and get botox/surgery to smooth out the wrinkels or use wrinkle cream to take away the wrinkles on their face or they sometimes feel like their boyfriends or husbands dont want them anymore, they want a younger woman. Some women like the aging because it makes them look more wiser and definition to them and also they get taken more seriously than if they were younger.

-Austin

Aging in both men and women is a midlife crisis in itself. All people age differently both physically and mentally. Men probably don't react as intensely as women, but there is still some sort of crisis as one moves past their twenties and mid thirties into their forties. But why is this? It seems to be that men don't worry about aging because men that have aged slightly might give them an edge with the ladies, or working with business. Then why is it that women have a daily struggle with their appearance when men don't. 

One of my theories is because as men age, they turn into "an older man", and a lot of women like this. Younger women in particular. They want a man who has built up his career, has money, and is single. On the other hand, there are far fewer men who say that they want an older women because why have an older women when they can have a youthful woman instead who has more energy and not tied down? Long story short, women want a MAN, and men want their young little hot things. So where do older women fall in this love triangle? They don't. Or at least they try to fit in, but when they do, they are seen as cougars because they want the young hot guy who is still fresh in his twenties.

Long story short, young women like older men because they have a lot to offer, plus older men want younger women. This then makes older men just as attractive, if not more attractive than younger ones. Take a look at George Clooney. He's a good looking salt and pepper man.