PICTURE PERFECT?

Although I have started this blog to write about things I consider pretty, beautiful and just downright cute, like many other women the world over, there are certain parts of me I’m not happy with.

I wish I had a model-esque washboard stomach, no cellulite and perfect skin, but as I’ve got older, I’ve learned to accept myself the way I am, change what I can through healthy eating and exercise and just, well, be happy.

But for those of us who really aren’t happy and have the financial means to change certain parts through the medium of surgery, why not?  Whatever makes you happy.

 MYA Cosmetic Surgery took the brave step to launch an advertising campaign “Can’t shift your…?” for its services using photos of “real” women – muffin tops, love handles and bingo wings and all, but surprisingly the photos were rejected by a number of publications, who asked for them to be replaced with something more “aesthetically palatable” meaning the usual slim tanned models in bikinis.

Michael Tilley, MYA’s Marketing Manager and the ideas man behind the campaign said: “‘We are trying to respond to the Sir Bruce Keogh Review (an NHS England review into cosmetic surgery advertising and attitudes) by using real women with real problems in our promotions rather than celebrity patients but it seems that the publishers cannot move away from the images of Victoria’s Secrets esque bikini models. 
"What the magazines objected to was posting pictures of models with real problem areas.”

MYA have since replaced the "before" images with simply the names of the area, saving the general public the “horror of being subjected to pictures of real women!” (their words, not mine). 

Who decided that real women are not “aesthetically palatable”? what message is this giving out to ladies who may not be as comfortable in their own skin as some, as well as those who suffer with eating disorders and body dysmorphia?  Statements and opinions such as these are dangerous.

Newsflash:  We don't all look like this underneath...

 Some women may feel the need to improve on what they have, which is totally cool, but it should be because they want to change their body, not because of what the media dictates to them what is acceptable and being told images of a little bit of flab is not acceptable, sets us back decades regarding body confidence.

I’d love to know what you guys think about this, does this advert image make you feel physically sick or do you welcome the acceptance that most women do perhaps look like this?

Lx 

www.mya.co.uk