The Negativity In Body Positivity
Is the fashion industry creating the “ideal” plus-sized body?
Exclusion is often masked as inclusion. The fashion industry is pushing for size diversity and putting more plus-sized models in their campaign and shows; however, representation is still limited because the industry is only incorporating a specific kind of plus-size model. Plus sizes are sizes that are considered to be over the “standard” size range. There are different ideas, when it comes to what sizes are considered plus-sized, Nadra Nittle in “why retailers overlook woman you arent quite plus or straight size” has said plus sizes range from 14 — 32 and Laura Beck in “is this was a plus-sized model should look like?” has said that the range is 8 — up. but in this article when plus-sized is referred to it will be sizes 14 and up, with the occasional mention of size 8 models like Khyrstyana Kazakova who is a well known model in the plus-sized modelling industry. The fashion industry pushes unrealistic body standards onto plus-sized models by only promoting one kind of plus-sized model, which is a “perfect” hourglass shape with the smaller waist and curvy hips and bust. This is not only harmful to models, who are expected to fit this standard to work, but also harmful to consumers who hoped for representation, only to be once again disappointed.
The Industry seems to have only one ideal body in mind, when thinking of the plus-sized model, the fully curvy hips and bust with a small waist in proportion seem to be the golden ticket for plus-sized models. Plus-sized models like Ashely Graham seem to be the most popular choice as she fits the perfect definition of an hourglass. For example Plus-model Khrystyana Kazakova who is most commonly known for her appearance on the hit television show Americas next top model with supermodel Tyra Banks. A show that centers around the search to find and train Americas next big thing in modelling, after coming in third Kazakova got a contact with a top modelling agency, in an interview with princess Jones and Suzy Weiss for “the secret high-pressured world of plus-sized models” Khyrstana reveals that as a size 8 she was told she was not the ideal size yet, that she needed to put on more weight in order to make more money. She had changed her eating habits and workout routines and two months later she gains 10 pounds, but this wasn’t the look the agency had in mind, they were looking for the hourglass shape that she didn’t seem to process and ultimately fried her from the agency but not before insinuating that she looked bloated.
The message here is that to be successful as a plus-sized model, you must be of an hourglass shape. when they said they wanted her to gain more they meant with hips and bust and have her waist remain the same. This is the point I made when saying the industry pushes for only one kind of plus-sized body, which limits true representation. This way of thinking is reminiscent to how standard modeling as been, models are expected to be a sample size, which is often small and slim and very little curves in order to get booked for a job. Princess Jones and Suzy Weiss, reveals that in the industry, you really can be fired for not being the ideal body shape which is significant, because it proves the initial point that the industry only wants and pushes for plus-sized bodies, when they are this “ideal” hourglass shape.
The push for the “perfect” plus-sized body isn’t just an issue for models, but harmful for consumers as well. When shopping for clothing, consumers constantly seeing ads and models wearing the clothes they want, and want to look just as good as the model themselves: “On average, most models weigh 23% less then the Average woman.”
For plus-sized people who may have been looking forward to the day of seeing a model closer to their size. So they can visualize a little bit of what the outfit may look like on someone like them, instead of only be lead down yet another trail of issues, for example, model Molly Tellekson is in the category of what is called an “in-betweeny”. betweenys are people who fall in the range of sizes 10 to 14, in-betweens are normally on the bigger side of straight sizes, (which normally caters to sizes 00 to 12) and on the smaller side of plus-sized. To keep up in the industry, she used padding (cloth material normally used for stuffing things) which is a standard way to achieve the hourglass ideal body thought Tellekson dislikes the idea, of padding for photo shoots she had to or else she will lose out on many jobs.
She has used padding to fill out size 14 and 16 samples at a photo shoot, but wasn’t very pleased with the message it was sending “My neck and collarbones are the sizes that I am, and below that is pretty much a fat suit… That’s an unrealistic standard of beauty for girls who want to buy these clothes. If I was a size 16 woman looking to buy [that] dress, I’d think, ‘Why isn’t my neck that thin?” in the example we see just how unrealistic these body standards can be, so much so someone has to put padding on their body to achieve the desired look wanted by the fashion industry. The evidence here illustrates how the ideal hourglass body impacts consumers as well as models — who feel pressured to add padding to their bodies. This, in turn, become an unrealistic representation and body proportion, which causes then consumer then to feel anxieties about their own bodies
This reminds me of when people would compare themselves to celebrities or social media influencers who seem to have the “perfect” body and facial features, when those people get work done such as lip fillers or and body injections. And of course, there is nothing wrong with that, except a lot of the time when asked, those people deny getting work done leading people to believe that it is perfectly natural then questioning all of their flaws, in a research article done by Kelly oakes “The complicated truth about social media and body image” it was said that “In a survey of 227 female university students, women reported that they tend to compare their own appearance negatively with their peer group and with celebrities”.
The idea of being a in between is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult problem of proper representation, as a in betweeny, its hard to book a job but if you are an in betweeny that adds padding or even cosmetic surgery it’s the look they want which goes to show the body that is wanted also has to be made or altered instead of fully natural. In short, this example further proves my point on the unrealistic body ideals that come with plus sized modelling and the lack of proper representation can be harmful to consumers.
In conclusion, the fashion industries push for the “ideal” and “Perfect” hourglass shape proves to be problematic in the way of expecting models to fit this ideal standard and exposing consumers who had hoped for true representation, to unrealistic expectations when it comes to their bodies. It’s time for the fashion industry to stop picking one extreme and putting it up on pedestal and expect people to follow those standards or else they’re not the latest and greatest thing. Its time for the fake inclusion to stop, and the incorporation of all plus-sized models of different shapes and sizes to be apart of this new era of true plus-sized representation.
