Watch Out For The Big Girls

Over the past few months, I have noticed a lot of talk about plus size models. Many fashion magazines (especially the French versions of Elle and Vogue) have been featuring plus size models and even have had issues dedicated to conversations about size. I think this attention is well deserved because it is a topic that has been taboo for a long time. Most of the attention has been positive because many feel it is refreshing to see a variety of body types in the magazines.

Granted, the range of bodies being represented is from size 0 to around size 8. While the average woman's dress size is a 12, this is not exactly an accurate representation of women. Something that bothers me about these so called "plus size" models is that they are not that much larger than "straight models" as can be seen in V Magazines One Size Fits All issue. I understand that the models in the magazines still need to be considered beautiful and sexy, but my issue is with the title. Calling a size 6 model "plus size" is problematic because that has the power to cause an ordinary size 6 woman, who was no originally concerned with her size, to rethink herself as plus size. Fashion and the media surrounding it has the power to redraw the lines for what is beautiful and what is not. Right now, those lines are extremely skewed toward the smaller side, dividing women into skinny and fat, opposed to skinny, average, and overweight.

Something else that is controversial about the presence of plus size models in magazines is that they are frequently naked. While this is showing that women can be naked too, it is further objectifying them. It is odd that these women are being featured in fashion magazines and they are not wearing any clothes...

Yesterday, the plus size issue was brought to the forefront when ABC and NBC refused to show a Lane Bryant plus-size lingerie commercial:


The major controversy was over the fact that the commercial did not differ much from other lingerie company commercials, such as those of Victoria's Secret, except for the fact that the model was not a size 0. Some claimed the commercial was too scandalous because of the amount of cleavage, but in my opinion, there was no that much more than I have seen in other lingerie commercials. The TV stations deny that they discriminated against the ad because of the size of the model.

The idea of "fat girls" in fashion magazines offends a lot of people because they feel they have no place in a world of beauty. Recently, a fresh fashion blogger was caught blasting plus size models by saying, "It's not such a good thing to show plus-size, because it's not really physically healthy and not always flattering to fashion." Because women who look like twigs are physically healthy?? The next day she came out and denied she had said this and proceeded to completely contradict herself by saying, "They represent the diversity of women's bodies, and what I said is that I will be happy to see them on a runway on a regular basis". Hm, get your opinion straight.

Overall, I think the increasing presence of plus size models is opening up the conversation for what really is beautiful. It shows we are in the process of becoming more tolerant and accepting to accepting more realistic beauty standards. Just look at how stunning all of these models are. Who cares what size they are?

More to Not Love

I, like my colleague Emily, have a somewhat vexed relationship with reality TV. Some days, there's nothing more enjoyable than collapsing on the futon and flipping to Bravo to watch mindless, ridiculous (and often staged) drama unfold.

However, I'd like to think I have my standards. You know, certain lines in the sand that I draw with the crappy-tv-world. When I first heard about FOX's new show, More to Love, I had suspicions that this would, tragically, be one of those series that crosses said line. Unfortunately, my suspicions were realized when I sat down to watch the first episode on Tuesday evening. Check out a trailer/clip below:

For those not familiar, here's the description of this new gem from FOX's website:

MORE TO LOVE, the new dating competition show from Mike Fleiss ("The Bachelor"), follows one regular guy's search for love among a group of real women determined to prove that love comes in all shapes and sizes.

The tragic part is that this sounds like it could be okay. If I put aside my general disdain for dating shows, it seems like this could be a step in the right direction - breaking open the definition of what the public sees as desirable and even "normal." The show's trailers frequently made mention of the fact that the average American woman is a size 14, as opposed to the size 2 stars of most reality TV. But the issue here is that More to Love seems to fall prey to the binary standards of acceptance and tolerance it (hopefully?) sought to debunk. Here's a few examples:

1) Whenever the women are speaking solo (both introducing themselves and commenting on their experience) the caption beneath them states their name, age, occupation, hometown, and - get this - their height and weight. Now, in my experience, the best way to reify a concept of 'normalcy' is to shore up an 'other'. Excuse the dusty women's studies vocab, but I have trouble thinking of any other reason for the women's height and weight to be included other than to make sure that the audience knows that these folks don't fit the social standards of your "normal" bachelorettes.

2) The introductions were the most painful. Primarily because, with a few self-assured exceptions, the women introduced themselves by way of heartwrenching stories of unrequited love, failed relationships, and prom night agonies. All of this, of course, on account of their size.

Okay. As mentioned before, I really don't like dating shows in general - they seem to feature women as a) utterly weak and pathetic or b) extremely cutthroat. Also, these shows equate a relationship with happiness - ignoring the reality of both extraordinarily unhappy relationships and perfectly happy single people.

I'm starting to think, maybe I was giving this genre of TV and FOX itself too much credit here, with the assumption that by producing this show they would be carrying the message that "it's possible to be happy and to be greater than a size 2." Throughout the show, I was disappointed that most of the women spoke about their size and love lives with such disgust and sadness. If we're really trying to increase personal and social acceptance, it makes me cringe to see women giving credence to a flawed, arbitrary concept of normal and in fact blaming their lack of compliance for their misery. Isn't this just another way of underscoring the notion that living within a socially constructed norm equates with happiness, while everything outside of that will mean a life of unfulfilled misery? Awesome.

3) Also, I struggle with the choice of bachelor and emphasis placed upon his also-greater-than-"normal" size. With terrible euphemisms related to the size of both bachelor Luke and the women competing for his attentions, the show describes itself. "This brawny prince is searching for one curvy Cinderella to take on the romantic adventure of a lifetime." (Thank you, FOX, for your clever usage of a thesaurus and deliberate avoidance of the descriptor "fat.")

This gives me qualms. I am totally for increasing size acceptance for both men and women alike, but I'm struggling a little bit with the connotation here. Are viewers to take away the message that the only way a fat woman can be happy is if she's in a relationship with a fat man?

It seems to me that if we did the same for any other physical attribute, it'd be at best, silly, and at worst, extremely offensive. If I suggested a show where only black women competed for the affections of a black man, I'd be thrown to the dogs - and rightly so. What if we restricted the field of bachelors/bachelorettes based on ability? Or ethnicity? Hair color? And is it any better to restrict based on the trait of fatness than it was for the other reality shows to (tacitly) restrict the pool based on thinness?

Like I said, I'm a little torn over this one. Overall, obviously not impressed with More to Love. I'm disappointed because I wanted to believe it would exceed my expectations, and I'm anxious because I worry about the message it sends to viewers and to society. What are your thoughts?