Fatties in fashion?

Fatties in fashion?

PLUS-SIZED models are a "new breed" who are "changing the face of fashion" according to the Daily Mail.

The purveyors of the 'Sidebar of Shame' are talking about a mini-trend towards larger models in advertising because 'us women' want to see females who are 'relatable'.

For the first time in history, Pirelli featured a size 18 girl in its annual soft-porn calendar, Sports Illustrated relented and used a curvy size 16 model in their iconic swim wear issue, and the world witnessed Tess Holliday, the first size 22 'super model' stopping traffic in her bra in New York City.

Fatties in fashion, who'd have thought it?

It isn't the width or the wobble of these models giving me pause – it's that the same old song is being sung for women in the media – once again it's a select few airbrushed hotties in their knickers.

Photo: http://www.queeniebridesmaid.co.uk/plus-size-bridesmaid-dresses

I'm as suggestible as the next person when it comes to advertising. However, the beauty unreality I see every day on TV and in print media isn't me, and though I'm a larger woman, stylised plus-size models aren't representative of me either.

Is the new wave of plus-sized models a sign women's bodies are finally being accepted in all their lumpy, bumpy and large glory?

Or are larger models in advertising campaigns just another excuse for the media to judge, define and sell to women?

Sadly, it's probably the latter.

We've heard it all before – larger ladies are breaking beauty barriers, pushing positive body image and lifting the veil on body diversity.

Brilliant buzz phrases, and no doubt there is an element of truth in them, but the evidence women can be larger than a size 14 and beautiful is hardly rare or new – history and every high street in the country shows that curves are cool.

Unfortunately, the so-called 'new breed' of larger models, however well meant, is just another stylised version of what a woman 'should' be.

And though it's clearly good to see women more representative of the average female (the average size is 16-18 in the UK), larger women are as prone to objectification as every other female – whether that's through fat-shaming, trolling, being adored or hounded in the street.

The representation of all women in the media is the issue, and whether the model is skinny and selling an unobtainable beauty dream or it's a larger girl in her bra showing big is beautiful, the aim is the same – to classify, divide and sell an ideal.

Until a hundred years ago corsetry literally and metaphorically held 'hysterical' women in place.

Now the media controls us, holding women (regardless of size) accountable for their imperfections with images of what they should be – playing into a desire to fit in, reminding us we are less than that at every turn.

It's so entrenched in our culture, it isn't difficult for us to be sold useless aspirations.

The media has us under a spell as it instructs us to diet, buff and beautify to remain a social player or 'real' woman.

Advertising is artifice and not meant to be real – it's an illusion which we all buy into, whether we like to admit it or not.

Seeing larger models in the media is right. but dressing women as bikini clad temptresses (whether size 0 or size 22) does little to challenge

old models of thinking about women's bodies as far as I can see. It's a poor reflection of 'real' women and just another opportunity

to objectify and classify the female form.

In fact in some ways it's sneakier than using 18-year-old models to sell anti-aging cream to forty-somethings, because the larger models appear as prettified, homogenised and airbrushed as their skinnier sisters.

Our natural desire to understand life is cleverly manipulated by industry

to make us scrutinise ourselves and be susceptible to scrutiny by others on a daily basis.

It's why diets, exercise, beauty and fashion sell so well and no doubt why larger models are back on the agenda – big girls have spending power too!

Larger women need to see positive images of themselves on screen and in print, but not as 'anti' to the norm, because they are as much the norm as any other woman.

And for the record, the idea

of 'plus-size' (size 14 and up?!) is a nonsense which perpetuates an idea of otherness.

Is it right that women of all sizes are seen in the media? You bet.

Are plus-sized models revolutionising the objectification of women? Fat chance.

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