Unless you've forgone reading fashion blogs or websites for the past week, you've likely heard of the Ralph Lauren ad campaign controversy. The image in question is of model Fillippa Hamilton retouched to the point of bobble-head proportions. And, according to Pulitzer Prize winner Robin Givhan, while fashion has encouraged skinny as an idea for decades, the distorted image represents a new breed of thin fetishism. "The fatter the general population, the thinner the idealized woman," Givhan writes in the Washington Post. There's no denying that the fashion industry is constructed on the platform of idealism and aspirational aestheticism. But does a vastly overweight America really translate to romanticism about extreme thinness?

Givhan thinks so. She argues, "before fashion models will get any bigger, people in general will just have to get smaller." Meanwhile, at the same time outlets like Glamour and Marie Claire are pushing acceptance of plus-size models more than ever. The latter has introduced a brand new column called "Big Girl in a Skinny World," penned by Ashley Falcon, who is a size 18. So, perhaps altogether the trends toward uber-thinness and embracing larger body types just helps to show that the fashion industry is living in a state of extremes. However, in this case it seems pretty clear that the former is the chicken and the latter the egg.