Lingerie model slams 'body type' obsession: 'This is about desensitisation'

Yahoo Style UK team
<i>Instagram/Tiah Eckhardt</i>
Instagram/Tiah Eckhardt

Words: Sarah Rohoman

An Australian lingerie model has taken to Instagram to show how dramatically her body has changed over three years and to slam the advertising industry for its obsession with “thin” body types.

“A lot is often said about the fashion/lingerie/advertising industries only using very thin models,” Tiah Eckhardt wrote on her Instagram page.

“However, I am sick of seeing only size 2-4/32-34A-B cups. Not because there’s anything wrong with it, but because I’m bored out of my brain by it. I’m literally desensitised to such imagery.”

The 32-year-old shared three photos of herself over the course of three years to demonstrate how her body changed before, during and after pregnancy.

View this post on Instagram

A lot is often said about the fashion/lingerie/advertising industries only using very thin models. Here’s my personal opinion (shocker, I know)… I do not think there’s anything wrong with thin body types. I have been 50kg before. I’ve been 60 and 70kg. I’ve been dainty-skinny, soft and curvy, athletic, and all those places in between*. No one type is better than another. However, I am sick of seeing only size 2-4/32-34A-B cups. Not because there’s anything wrong with it, but because I’m bored out of my brain by it. I’m literally desensitized to such imagery. It doesn’t even make me feel bad about myself! It would actually be good for advertisers if it did- insecurity makes you buy their ‘aspirational’ stuff and then you feel better! (😂). It actually just makes me feel nothing and doesn’t even catch my attention- I just flick right past. And that, dear advertisers, is the the worst possible reaction a potential consumer could have. I don’t know about you, but now, at this point of singular-body-type fatigue I’m experiencing, nothing makes me engage quite like an interesting face (or at least one that has some personality), or something like a great pair of boobs, a soft stomach or some killer shoulders or leg muscles. This is not about one body type over another, this is about desensitization and a new culture of consumers that can edit their feeds and choose to block you out now. Bore them and they will. *The above three photos were all taken in the past 3 years. There are points I was even thinner, and others where I was bigger, or more muscular. And they are ALL great. Just using as an example to show how much the female body can fluctuate.

A post shared by Tiah Eckhardt (@the_tiah) on Jan 30, 2019 at 10:51am PST

“I’ve been dainty-skinny, soft and curvy, athletic, and all those places in between,” she wrote to her more than 75,000 followers. “No one type is better than another.”

Eckhardt went on to explain how constantly advertising to only a thin body type has lead to disengagement with content.

“It actually just makes me feel nothing and doesn’t even catch my attention- I just flick right past,” she continued. “I don’t know about you, but now, at this point of singular-body-type fatigue I’m experiencing, nothing makes me engage quite like an interesting face (or at least one that has some personality), or something like a great pair of boobs, a soft stomach or some killer shoulders or leg muscles.”

View this post on Instagram

Shit like this used to be my worst nightmare. Now I think it’s sexy AF. Straps digging in, things jiggling, skin not utterly perfect… Women HAVE skin. It stretches to grow babies (if it didn’t, you wouldn’t be here). They have muscle AND fat. They have cellulite (did you know that female fat cell structure is different to men’s? Linear vs. criss-cross? It’s more normal than not to have cellulite if you’re over 18). We have lives and adventures, so we have scars, and freckles. We age and if we are lucky, we die old, with bodies that have been places, felt things and held our children, our lovers and ourSELVES. This is all NORMAL, this is awesome, and quite frankly, any time spent worrying about anything else is a waste. Thank you for listening to my TEDtalk 😂.

A post shared by Tiah Eckhardt (@the_tiah) on Dec 14, 2018 at 2:09pm PST

The lingerie model went on to say that focusing only on one body type will lead to loss for advertisers, and here post really resonated with her followers.

“I feel ya! There’s something so blah in seeing the same body shape over and over in magazines,” said one follower.

“So true! If I can see how bigger boobs in an ad fit into a bra? Instantly makes me want to check the bra out,” said another.

“This is exactly how I have been feeling and didn’t even realise it. Thank you for putting it into words 👏,” wrote another woman.

“This is not about one body type over another, this is about desensitisation and a new culture of consumers that can edit their feeds and choose to block you out now,” Eckhardt wrote. “Bore them and they will.”

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