Filippa Hamilton: Too fat to model?

Filippa Hamilton is finally speaking out about her "distorted image," said MSNBC.com. The 5'8", 120 lb model claims she was fired by fashion designer Ralph Lauren for being too fat, and decided to go public (watch Hamilton on the Today show) about it after a severely Photoshopped image of her, looking "painfully emaciated" in an ad for Lauren, showed up on BoingBoing.net. Good for Hamilton for drawing attention to this—the idea "that she is too fat to model" is "devastating."

Hamilton was "Photoshopped into a stick insect by Ralph Lauren," said Jezebel. But this is nothing new: "Models get fired, or simply passed over for work, all the time for being overweight," and "there have even been cases where models who have had eating disorders, having entered treatment, have lost work or agency contracts because of their choice to try and get better." For what it's worth, Ralph Lauren's "apology, when it came, seemed sincere."

We're just glad that public perceptions of beauty are finally evolving, said Joanna Molloy in the New York Daily News. Readers of Glamour "exulted" recently when the magazine ran photos of plus-size model Lizzi Miller. "The new American role models aren't fashion models on the Tic Tac-and-cigarettes diet, but athletic women like Michelle Obama. Any designer who doesn't recognize that will be left behind as the next generation gets healthier and stronger."

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