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All around us, people are different. To look through the eyes of the fashion industry, we would all see tall, skinny girls whose clothes fall in all the right places. It is obvious that not everyone is like that in the real world. We are all varying heights, weights and abilities. Even walking through a shopping centre can be an overwhelming experience for those not the perfect size\u2014a slap in the face with a beauty ideal that you can never truly achieve.<\/span><\/p>\n Do you know what you really see?<\/span><\/p>\n Once in a while, a campaign comes along, and it is only then that our eyes are fully opened. We start to realise the brainwashing, conforming body image that is spoon-fed to us on a daily basis. Every time you walk into a clothes shop and see a mannequin smaller than you, does that mentally affect you? Does it demand that you change in order to make their clothes look good? <\/span><\/p>\n In the shops, mannequins are displayed in pride of place, with the most popular items hanging from them. They are often clipped back because the figures themselves are too small to wear the clothing properly. It is said that the average size of a woman in the UK is 16, whereas most mannequins are between sizes 8 and 10.<\/span><\/p>\n And now an MSP has spoken up, with a personal message to spread.<\/span> Dennis Robertson<\/a> lost his daughter Caroline to anorexia, one of the most common eating disorders in the UK. He has demanded that retailers follow the lead of<\/span> Debenhams and use a mix of mannequins for their display<\/a>. When we shop with our children, is it even considered the influence they are put under in shops with skinny mannequins? Does it even affect them, or not?<\/span><\/p>\n It is not just their weight that is the problem with mannequins. Those who are visually disabled and struggle on a daily basis are sick of being called ugly by the generic image of a beautiful woman that is repeated over and over again, no matter the store. Things are changing, though. A Swiss ad agency called Pro Infermis waded into the debate, and it opened our eyes to the superficial nature of our society<\/span>. The video is aptly called <\/span>Who is Perfect?<\/a><\/p>\n Just how much buzz the campaign has created is inspiring, but it also shows that people are sick and tired of this false, corrupted message of body perfection that seems to plague the fashion industry like a bad smell. According to national studies,<\/span> 35% of amputees are depressed<\/a> or have some mental disorder that is due to their amputation. Returning to everyday life after losing a limb is hard enough without constantly being forced to observe a permanently unattainable beauty ideal.<\/span><\/p>\n It Affects Us All <\/span><\/p>\n Hopefully, it will not be too long before we start to see an influx of mannequins that represent the average British population (size 16 and 5 ft 3), coupled with those with disabilities. The body size of the population changes so fast that before the year 2000, the average size for a woman in the UK was a size twelve. That has gone up not one but two sizes in the past fourteen years, which begs the question: what will the average size be by 2030? Size twenty?<\/span><\/p>\n