PLUS Model Magazine's Katya Zharkova cover highlights body image in the fashion industry

PLUS Model Magazine's Katya Zharkova cover highlights body image in the fashion industry
'Most runway models meet the BMI criteria for anorexia', claims plus-size magazine in powerful comment on body image in the fashion industry
By TAMARA ABRAHAM
A magazine dedicated to plus-size fashion and models has sparked controversy with a feature claiming that most runway models meet the Body Mass Index criteria for anorexia.

Accompanied by a bold shoot that sees a nude plus-size model posing alongside a skinny 'straight-size' model, PLUS Model Magazine says it aims to encourage plus-size consumers to pressure retailers to better cater to them, and stop promoting a skinny ideal.

Size 12 (U.S.) model Katya Zharkova, 28, stars in the shoot, which has a powerful statistic accompanying each image.

Size matters: PLUS Model Magazine has shot size 12 Katya Zharkova pose with a 'straight-size' model to demonstrate the difference between them
One, printed alongside a photo of the Russian beauty holding a tape measure across her rear, reads: 'Twenty years ago the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, she weighs 23% less.' Another states: 'Ten years ago plus-size models averaged between size 12 and 18. Today the need for size diversity within the plus-size modeling industry continues to be questioned.

'The majority of plus-size models on agency boards are between a size 6 and 14, while the customers continue to express their dissatisfaction.'

And finally, further highlighting how poorly the fashion world caters to plus-size women, the magazine tells us: '50% of women wear a size 14 or larger, but most standard clothing outlets cater to sizes 14 or smaller.'

Body image: The Russian beauty poses with a tape measure around her rear alongside a statistic that shows how different models are from real women
In an accompanying editorial, the magazine's editor-in-chief, Madeline Figueroa-Jones, explains that the feature is a response to a fashion and beauty industry which continues to endorse a skinny ideal that is not always healthy and alienates a huge percentage of the market.

She writes: 'We are bombarded with weight-loss ads every single day, multiple times a day because it’s a multi-billion dollar industry that preys on the fear of being fat.

'Not everyone is meant to be skinny, our bodies are beautiful and we are not talking about health here because not every skinny person is healthy.' Ms Figueroa-Jones says consumers can no longer identify with models; the disparity between real woman and those that grace ad campaigns and the covers of magazines is to wide now.

Body image: The model proudly bares her U.S. size 12 curves in the magazine shoot

'Small women cannot be marketed to with pictures of plus-size women, why are we expected to respond to pictures of small size 6 and 8 women?' she asks.

The PLUS Model Magazine feature has generated a mixed response from its readers though.

While some have praised the statements the shoot makes, others believe that positively endorsing a fuller figure is as dangerous as advocating a skinny one.

Big deal: The magazine wants to encourage women to embrace their bodies as they are, and not strive to emulate an unrealistic ideal

One reader on the magazine's website comments: 'If this article is saying you should feel pretty at any size, fine. but don’t tell me you’re obese and healthy. We have a twisted sense of what healthy is in this country and an even more twisted sense of what people are allowed to say about it.'

Another adds: 'I don’t think the fashion world should support obesity, just as I don’t think it should support anorexia.'

The article has also generated an equal share of agreement, though. Reader Danae writes: 'We all women are brainwashed to believe that we are ugly and men will never look at us if we are not starving... We need more variety of healthy female body images.'
The January issue of PLUS Model Magazine is on sale now; plus-model-mag.com

Tragedy in the skies

Tragedy in the skies: Striking photos show horrific 1960 Brooklyn airline collision that sparked new era of crash investigations relying on 'black boxes'
By BETH STEBNER

Decades before the September 11th terrorist attacks, New York City saw another tragic event in its skies, when two airliners collided in mid-air over Brooklyn, weeks before Christmas.

Two passenger planes – United Airlines Flight 826 and Trans World Airlines Flight 266 – collided while they were making their descents toward Idlewild and LaGuardia on December 16, 1960, leaving a trail of carnage and flames in their wake.
But out of the tragedy, a new era of airline safety measures was instigated, including the way flight recorders - commonly called black boxes - are used to investigate airline crashes.

Early on that December morning, the United Airlines flight was flying from O’Hare Airport in Chicago to Idlewild Airport, now John F Kennedy International Airport. The Douglas DC-8 carried 84 people, including seven crew members.
It overshot its holding point by nearly 12 miles, and collided with the TWA plane, a Lockheed Super Constellation carrying 44 people from Columbus, Ohio to LaGuardia. Officials say the snowy weather also played a role in the collision.

Shortly after 10.30am that morning, the DC-8 crashed into the quiet Park Slope neighbourhood of Brooklyn, which was in the midst of preparing for the upcoming holidays.
Residents were horrified to see a passenger jet’s plane wing careening down a narrow street. Next, there was an explosion, as the plane crashed to the neighbourhood, demolishing the Pillar of Fire church as well as several houses. The explosion as well as flying debris blew out many nearby windows.

Ten miles away, the TWA flight crashed onto a small military field, killing all aboard the plane. The New York Daily News reported that wreckage was strewn four miles, miraculously, no one on the on the ground was killed.
Those in Brooklyn weren’t so lucky. The plane’s pilot made a desperate effort to land at LaGuardia, but instead landed at Seventh Avenue and Sterling Place in the heart of Park Slope. What was moments ago an idyllic Christmas scene had turned into carnage – twisted metal, burned plane pieces, and charred corpses littered the streets.

The New York Daily News reported that more than 200 homes were ablaze, and six on the ground – including a Christmas tree seller, a butcher, and a dentist – were dead.
The 2,500 responders comprised of police and fire crews found only one survivor in the entire wreckage – an 11-year-old boy named Stephen Baltz of Wilmette, Illinois, who had been flying alone to join his mother, who was waiting for him at the airport.

He told a doctor that he had seen snow falling on New York City from the plane. ‘It looked like a picture out of a fairy book. It was a beautiful sight.’ Stephen lived for 27 hours, but then succumbed to his injuries.
After subsequent inquiries, investigators concluded the deadly crash was 61 per cent liable to United Airlines, 24 per cent the U.S. government, and 15 per cent for TWA. The worst airline accident of the time also called for a revaluation of air-traffic control systems.

In total, 134 people died from the disaster. Sir Edmund Hillary – one of the first to conquer Mount Everest – had booked a seat on the doomed United Airlines flight, but missed his flight after a late arrival at O’Hare.
On the 50th anniversary of the tragedy, a granite monument was revealed in nearby Greenwood Cemetery.

WARNING: Photos may be disturbing to some readers

Disaster: A United DC-8 crashed into the Brooklyn neighbourhood of Park Slope after slamming into another flight mid-air
Where to begin? When the United jet crashed on December 16, 1960, it set ablaze more than 200 homes in the neighbourhood of Victorian town houses
To protect and serve: More than 2,500 firefighters and policemen arrived at the grisly scene to battle the raging flames
Their eyes were watching God: Onlookers to the carnage look on helplessly as much of the neighbourhood remained in flame

Timeline of tragedy: Eyewitnesses said that after they heard a whistling noise and saw the plane crash into Pillar of Fire Church, left



Pillar of fire: Firefighters take away a body on a stretcher (left) while a police officer and a detective inspect a piece of the TWA flight in a Staten Islander's yard (right)
Grisly sight: Firemen, each wearing expressions of horror, pull corpses from the wreckage of the flight. There were 83 people aboard United Airlines Flight 826
Unbelievable sight: The crash happened at the intersection of Sterling and Seventh Avenues in Park Slope, and looks more like a scene from a post-apocalyptic film
Amid the snow and slush: Firefighters carry away yet another victim. Only one person survived the crash - an 11-year-old boy who died a day later from severe burns
A point of contention: The United Airlines flight was said to have been 12 miles off of its mark, but New York's air-traffic control was also deemed liable for the collision

Tangle of metal and wires: One of the plane's jet engines and wings can be seen as well as the ruins of a car in the midst of indistinguishable rubble
Sign of the times: The New York Times said the Park Slope neighbourhood was 'in transition' after more lower-income families moved into the once-fashionable area
On another island: Ten miles away on Staten Island, Trans World Airlines Flight 266 crashed in a military field, killing all 44 on board
Another scene of chaos: The New York Daily News described the Staten Island wreckage to resemble a battlefield, with bodies and Christmas presents strewn across the field

Gauteng e-tolling won't begin in February

Gauteng e-tolling won't begin in February, Sanral says - Business LIVE

The South African National Roads Agency announced on Friday that e-tolling in Gauteng would not commence in February as initially planned.

Image: Gallo Images

The agency said it was exploring different modalities which would be presented to Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele.

The latest about-turn followed the board's meeting with Ndebele on Thursday during which Sanral's mandate, Gauteng e-tolling and future roads programmes were discussed.

The minister has previously requested the agency to resolve the financing model regarding the cost of the controversial Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project phase 1 (GFIP) amounting to R20 billion.

The Congress of SA Trade Unions was mobilising its members for mass action next month against the implementation of the project.

Amid the public furore, the department halted any future planned tolling of roads in the country, including the planned phase 2 of GFIP, Cape Winelands and the Wild Coast.

Cabinet approved GFIP 1 in August last year, with light motor vehicles and class A2 expected to pay tariffs of 40c per kilometre, while medium vehicles, class B, would be R1 per kilometre. Longer vehicles, class C, would be charged R2 per kilometre.