The Student Government and Activities Board recently put on the ‘Beautiful Me’ fashion show to raise money for the student book fund. The flyers littered campus, calling for “all types” of women to model in the show.

The fashion show has promoted not only the fund, but body tolerance for all shapes and sizes, a viewpoint Pierce College needs.

Unhealthy sociocultural expectations of feminine beauty and weight are shown in staggering numbers by all forms of media. USA Today reports that 67% of school aged girls said magazines changed their ideas of what the “perfect” body looks like and nearly 50% wanted to change their weight because of magazines. Girls are taught at a young age to be critical of their bodies, and that value is found in thinness.

The event called for all women to step up and see themselves in a new light. All body types were invited to participate as models, something our society is quick to reject. The average woman is five feet, four inches, and 140 pounds, while the average model is five feet, 11 inches,  and 117 pounds.

The pressure women face to look “perfect” is insurmountable. The fashion show gave women here at Pierce the opportunity to overcome some of these expectations and pressures together.

According to the National Association of Anorexia and Associated Diseases, 91% of women surveyed on college campuses said they had tried to control their weight through dieting. The media-based “ideal” body is impossible for most girls to attain and remain healthy. The Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders reports that only 5% of American women have the body type advertisements portray as ideal.

The images that media project insist that women need to be dangerously thin to be beautiful. The ‘Beautiful Me’ fashion show encouraged women to be accepting of both their bodies and others’, regardless of cultural pressures.