Recently, Plus Model Magazine (an online publication: http://plus-model-mag.com) published an article dealing with the issues surrounding size in the fashion industry. Read the Daily Mail's take here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2085226/PLUS-Model-Magazines-Katya-Zharkova-cover-highlights-body-image-fashion-industry.html

The photos from the article have sparked all kinds of commentary, conversation and controversy. I've been reading comments left on the various articles written about the photos and I'd like to blog about the trends that I've seen popping up in some of these forms. “This article is hypocrisy. They talk about natural female beauty but then Photoshop all of their photos.”

This type of comment seems to crop up a lot. I really don't think that there's anything wrong with using techniques to get the photo to look the way the photographer wants it to look. Fashion photography, after all, is an art form. I do think that there should be more wide-spread education of the art form. The marketing machine behind fashion is huge and it's no accident that there is a misconception that the photos we see in magazines are WYSIWYG. If you can, I highly recommend that you get professional photographs of yourself done sometime. Pick a magazine cover and a person you like and ask the photographer to do something like it (guys too, if you need a little self-confidence boost). It gives you a great understanding of how lighting, posing and all the photographer's techniques can be used to get the best shot. If you want, take it a step further and get the photographer to use a little Photoshop. You'll soon see that anyone can look “perfect” when conditions are right.

Or, if you're really narcissistic, like me, you can do your own photo shoot:



“Fat is unhealthy, look at her rolls. She's unhealthy. This is encouraging young girls to be fat.”

Every one in the world, is not meant to weigh 112 lbs anymore than they are supposed to be ripped and buff. A vast amount of research is still needed when it comes to body type. I am not suggesting for a minute that I think it's perfectly okay to eat lots of processed food and not take any exercise. However, I am suggesting that you absolutely cannot judge the health of anyone on earth by what their body looks like. There are large people who are considered obese that live long and productive lives and there are marathoners who drop dead when they're 40. Young, thin girls are not going to start eating huge amounts of bad food to emulate these models but young, larger girls might learn to like themselves and not develop eating disorders trying to obtain the impossible.

The other problem here, is that the “standard” is so impossibly low. Before I got pregnant, I had lost 111 lbs. At 159 lbs. and 5'5”, I was still considered over-weight by BMI. I'm lucky in that I have a doctor who actually reads recent studies and pointed out that BMI is at least 20 lbs. too low for most people. However, last year, as I was painfully, slowly losing my pregnancy weight, I'd managed to knock off more than half but was worried about an upcoming trip to Hawaii. A so-called friend commented to me that she didn't understand why I was so worried about the weight since before I'd gotten pregnant (and I quote) “I still had the fat ass and big belly”. Seriously? She's never had to lose that kind of weight before so it was pretty cold of her to assume I simply wasn't trying hard enough (she'd also never run a half, or competed in a tri). My point here is, that after a lifetime of dieting and struggling, this one person managed to basically diminish my hard work into something that was laughable. The sad part is, her opinion is not the exception. It's no wonder so many people just give up. It's hard to keep working on your health and fitness when everything you hear and see let's you know that no matter how far you've gone, you still have miles to go.

“Stop picking on thin women, it's not our fault we're thin. We're not all anorexic.”

I understand that there are some women who are very thin and very small naturally. I understand that they face challenges because of their small size. I fail to see that they are being picked on by all the mean fat girls. Do skinny girls have difficulty getting jobs because they're skinny? Are skinny girls a typical sit-com running joke? Do skinny girls get picked to be the butt of every joke ever made by Top 40 or Classic Rock DJs? Since the media has constantly pointed out how unfit and unhealthy fat is we can't possibly be a physical threat to the skinny girls? I mean, we'll all be dead soon, right?

I suspect that comments like this are much the same as Wall Street calling the Occupy Movement “a bunch of over-educated, unemployed hippies” and anyone in the oil industry calling legitimate environmental groups “radicals”. The problem is, the rich can no longer control the media the way they have done in the past. Society is largely becoming more educated, cynical, global and connected. This is making it easier then it ever has been before for groups to connect. Having said that, larger women are finally having their voices heard (and by larger women, I mean the part of the population that doesn't look like a model or a Hollywood actress, we should call ourselves the 95%). This bothers the marketing teams that have worked so hard in the fashion industry to convince us that any thing less than perfect if unacceptable. Think of the money they'd lose if we all started to like ourselves?

This is a huge misconception. Just as in business where companies that keep their employees happy are much more productive and successful, women who feel good about themselves will pour even more money into the economy for fashion and beauty. I hated myself for years and assumed I couldn't compete with women so very little of my money was given over to beauty. Now, that I feel better about myself (in spite of weight being higher then I'd like), I'm much more likely to spend time and effort on fashion and beauty. Not because I'm trying to be something I'm not, but because I feel like I'm doing something nice for myself.

Skinny girls, let's call a truce. You stop assuming that anyone who weighs more than 110 lbs. is a fat, lazy, pig who does nothing but eat and we'll stop assuming that you're too stupid to know that not eating is a bad idea. Deal?

“That picture is obscene. I don't know where to start with the wrongness.”

I'm sure some of these people are simply shocked to see a normal woman without her clothes on but I suspect most of these comments have nothing to do with the matter at hand.

If it's nudity that you are offended by, don't look at a fashion article on the web or pick up a fashion magazine. For heaven's sake, don't ever look at a European fashion publication because I guarantee that you will see breasts and much more. If you don't like it, don't look at it. Go back to ignoring the fact that your kids are playing a video game that's going to affect them a hundred times worse than seeing a naked person.

Oh, let me guess. It's just two naked women embracing. Calm down and get you're big, granny panties out of knot. It isn't as though the two women in the photo are sharing a double-headed dildo...that we can see.

In conclusion, it is good that this photo spread has people talking. We need to have another feminist revolution where women not only learn to love their own differences but the differences of all the women around them. It is happening, but slowly. The next time you're out a mall or a grocery store and you're people watching, take a look at the women around you and find things about them that you like. Think, “she looks really fit, good for her” instead of “skinny bitch” or “wow, that woman is rocking that outfit” rather then “isn't she too big to wear a top like that.”

You'd be amazed at how empowering it is.

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