by David Child

Created on: March 10, 2007   Last Updated: April 30, 2007

The "Size Zero" controversy, concerning catwalk models who seek to have small waists and large bank accounts, is a small and minor one because the controversy is only thought about by a small percentage of the population (those who think about such stupid things), and the ones who seek to "go small" are a very relative few.

In the 58 years I have lived, I have only given catwalk models a weak and passing thought a few times when the television featured them now and again in TV spots, and when I have seen them, I often quickly turned the channel because these women look weird and wouldn't be on my list of people to think about. Once of twice I would watch their weird gyrations for a minute or two to see what their world was like, but I wouldn't want to sully my mind by thinking a great deal about it.

If you wanted me to commit to a position, though, I would say their desire to have small waists as catwalk models is their way of earning a living. They may not have any other skills that would give them as much money, or they may not have had mothers and fathers who taught them that doing such things is tantamount to being a performer in a freak show and lowering one's morals.

I would also say that these girls have a support group and friends who do it, and so they have a group who support each other in it, and it is like a club. They get their jollies doing it.

Now, I wouldn't link these women and girls to world hunger because world hunger is an economic problem linked inextricably and powerfully to the local economies and political realities of the areas where hunger exists. And I don't know what these girls do with their money. Perhaps they are very generous and loving to people who we are not aware of, and they use their money in spectacular and meaningful ways that change the world, if only a little bit. I really don't know.

Certainly, I wouldn't buy their fashion magazines, and probably millions of baby boomers wouldn't buy them either, and so we of that generation are blameless regarding world hunger and the lifestyles they lead. And I believe millions of others are also in the same boat. We all despise Catwalk Deprivation.

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