Star Trek icon Leonard Nimoy counts poetry and photography among his lifelong hobbies. He recently put out a coffee table photography book that features larger women without airbrushing or clothing called The Full Body Project. He’s hopes to get the message out that the images of models in the media are unrealistic and not even close to the size of average women. Some of his models are part of the “fat acceptance” movement, which promotes understanding and equal opportunity in society for people who are larger-sized. Nimoy says the use of super thin women in ads is a cheap ploy to make women feel inferior and buy unneeded products:

In his provocative new book, photographer and actor Leonard Nimoy captures images of full-bodied women, some of whom are involved in what is known as the “fat acceptance” movement. “The average American woman,” Nimoy writes, “weighs 25 percent more than the models selling the clothes. There is a huge industry built up around selling women ways to get their bodies closer to the fantasy ideal. Pills, diets, surgery, workout programs. . . . The message is You don’t look right. If you buy our product, you can get there.'”

[From Amazon.com, thanks to The National Enquirer, print edition, for the tip]

We’ve had a lot of discussion here about this issue after the recent controversy over gorgeous model Karolina Kurkova being called “fat” on the runway. I mentioned in the comments that I don’t want to see super skinny women modeling clothing because it’s not going to make me interested in a product line. Some people applauded Kurkova for not falling for pressure to be pin thin while others said it’s her job to look unrealistically skinny and she isn’t doing it by gaining some essential weight.

Entrepreneur and all around opportunist Katie Price, better known as Jordan, put out a lingerie line and featured models of all sizes wearing her bras and undies at a photo call. She had a line up of women that included thin, average-sized and one woman who could be considered obese. It was a smart move because it got her a lot of publicity along with showing that her underwear fits women who range from small to very big-breasted.

The Dove “campaign for real beauty” ads include women that are average-sized and mildly overweight and proclaim that we should feel beautiful at all sizes. By bucking the trend of showing super fit models Dove has received a lot of attention and press. Some people criticize the ads, because the woman may be larger than we’re accustomed to seeing but they’re still all gorgeous and airbrushed. Others pointed to the hypocrisy of parent company Unilever, which also has the arguably sexist Axe ad campaign featuring perfect, sex-starved beauties fawning over the men who use their body care products.

The choice to use small, average and/or large models in an ad campaign is ultimately a business decision. It seems logical, as Dr. Mr. Spock would put it, to chose women with bodies across the spectrum in order to show that your product or clothing item has wide appeal. Nothing drives frivolous purchase decisions quite like emotion, though, and that’s why they use tiny barely post-adolescent girls to sell luxury items. You may never be that thin in your life again unless you take drastic measures – and you’ll never be that young – but it’s easy enough to plop down the money if you have it.

Here’s 77 year-old Leonard Nimoy looking cute at “16th Annual Grand Slam: Sci-Fi Summit Day Three” in Burbank, CA on 4/13/08, thanks to PRPhotos.

Update: This is the first I’ve heard of Nimoy’s book, and the news is in the National Enquirer this week. Many of you note that the book is old. Amazon.com has it with a publication date of December, 2007.