By Erin Wright
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 12, 1998

Columnist contradicts herself

To the Editor:

While I agree with Jennifer McKean's statement that "Everybody is beautiful in their own way," her column on natural beauty ("Respect yourself," Feb. 9) seemed to contradict itself. For the first half of her column, she spouts typical nonsense about loving one's self, accepting all body types as beautiful, etc. This is all nice and p.c., though coming from a thin, pretty girl it is a bit hard to swallow.

Ms. McKean then goes on to explain why we are obsessed with the perfect body- because advertisers feed it to us and we bite. This I agree with. Society has been buying the thin image for half a century at least. The more we buy, the more the advertisers sell. It's a vicious cycle. Instead of exploring the social constructs that led us here, Ms. McKean simply blames us for buying into the "perfect body" image. No only does she absolve the advertisers of all responsibility, but she suggests that thin people should be selling us cereal and jeans.

After her tirade on accepting our "natural gifts," she says we should just "exercise and eat better." Isn't this the opposite of what she just said about loving ourselves?

Her excuse for the advertisers is that their models are in the public eye. Why people who are in the public eye should be thin is beyond me, but whatever. Ms. McKean needs to remember that she is in the public eye also. By telling her readers they should love themselves, and then telling them to try and identify with the fake perfection they are force-fed by advertisers, she is contradicting herself. Of course, she could just accept her opinions as natural gifts. Or maybe she should proof-read and clarify her columns. She'd be amazed.

Erin Wright
Psychology Sophomore