Presenting other blog posts: THINGS NO ONE WILL TELL FAT GIRLS…SO I WILL

This week I just wish to direct your attention to the following blog post:

http://www.themilitantbaker.com/2013/03/things-no-one-will-tell-fat-girls-so-i.html

Originally I had wanted to write something about geek language, but when I came across this post, I just felt the need to share it with the world. As you might have noticed, I am posting a lot about plussize issues and that’s because I feel that they still go ignored in the media most of the time. So I just wanna spread the word. And, more importantly, I really wanted to share something that really made me feel better about myself, in the hopes that the blog post would work the same magic for others.

So often fat girls are told “Eww, you are so fat”, “Go exercise”, or “You are fat, so what? Get over yourself.” Jes at the Militant Baker really makes some motivational points and so I want to share them. So read and enjoy!

Killing us Softly – Media vs. Women

Instead of writing up a long post on the battle between media and women, I will just post a link to a video that basically says it all. It is a debate that has been going on for fourty years and it will most likely continue for many more. It is a problem that cannot be solved instantly, if ever. Society has created media and eventually media has started to create society. It has formed a circle we don’t know how to break out of yet. But maybe the future generations will know how. Of course, media is never all bad and evil, but it has its dark sides and this is definitely one of them.

 

Plussize in Media and Society

Yesterday I stumbled upon an article about Robyn Lawley, a stunning young model, who did a bikini shoot. Now what really surprised, shocked and bothered me about said article was that Miss Lawley was described as a plussize model.

I wish to ask you all, are we really living in a society where this body type is considered plussize? Yes, she is not a size 0 or a size 36 for that matter, but this is far from plussize! This is what I would consider normal or average size! My problem is really just with the term they have used to describe her.

What the media often forget, or perhaps just ignore, is that their terms do feed into society. This is what people on the street will label as plussize as well, not just the fashion industry. Plussize was a neutral term I always associated with women like me, sizes 46 upwards. What are they gonna call us now? Is there a need to invent a new term? Real plussize to me are models like this. Women I can identify with from a body shape perspective and who can give me fashion tips relevant to me. You cannot pick a woman of size 40 and let her model clothes for women of size 50. This only leads to reduced self-confidence in the customers and disappointments when the clothes dont fit well or dont look good on a different body type.

I understand that the media try to be aesthetically pleasing, but claiming that nobody wants to look at adverts of plussize women is not only insulting, but wrong. At least partly. The media claim to know what society does or does not want to see. But guess what? They have shaped their tastes in the first place! And yes, it will take effort to broaden society’s general view on things, but the media do have the power to do this. They just dont seem to want to take the risk or put in the effort! The pro-plussize voices are there, but are barely heard under the weight of the mainstream views on beauty and what can and cannot be effiective in advertising. I personally really hope, that society and the media will come around one day and lose their inhibitions about portraying plussize women in normal mainstream media in a positive way.

Until then, enjoy two pictures from plussize magazines that prove that curves really can be beautiful. And dont tell me anyone would be really upset or offended by this!