National Organization Of Women Joins Ralph Lauren Boycott

Yesterday, the National Organization for Women in New York City issued a press release calling for Ralph Lauren to immediately end its mass marketing of waif-like and sickly models in its advertising. They joined national eating disorder organizations, filmmaker Darryl Roberts and others protesting the airbrushed ads featuring a 5 foot, 10 inch model who was later fired for being overweight at 120 pounds.

“If models can’t catch a break, how can the rest of us hope to have a healthy self-image?” NOW-NYC President Sonia Ossorio said. “Starting at younger and younger ages, eating disorders, low self-esteem, and a preoccupation with appearance plague women and girls. Ralph Lauren and the advertising industry are complicit in making real women feel less sexy and less beautiful than they really are.”

I told you about the outrage a week ago and even then, it seemed to be dying down. Not so. After all, research clearly proves that negative images have a real and sometimes devastating impact on females. More than 80% of fourth grade girls have tried dieting. As many as 10 million women and girls suffer from an eating disorder in the United States, and it’s clear that the constant stream of unrealistic images plays a big role.