It’s Come to This: Plus-Size Models Just Aren’t ‘Plus’ Enough for Some People

Posted on Comments

Not big enough? Plus-size model Laura Wells

Before we get to the latest lunacy, let’s ask an obvious question: Has anyone ever heard guys complain that the male models in GQ are “too rugged”? I mean, why must all male models be tall and muscular? Isn’t the male fashion industry’s insistence on using these mesomorphic freaks in their ads inflicting body-image issues on men? Why haven’t men started a protest campaign to insist on having more male models who are spindly geeks or chubby bald guys?

The very idea is absurd, of course, and yet the women who complain that fashion models are too thin have now begun complaining that plus-size models aren’t legitimately fat enough:

It’s hard to believe that the very women who are meant to empower plus-size ladies by showcasing body diversity might just be posing yet another impossible standard. But it seems even plus-size models are alienating their target demographic.
Alex LaRosa, a self-proclaimed “plus-size model who’s visibly plus-size,” stopped by HuffPost Live on Friday to talk about the impossible standards that plague her sector of modeling just as much as the size zero benchmark plagues the straight size industry. She explained:

“In a world where you’re telling women that plus-size is sizes 4 and up, you’re causing body image issues. You’re causing unrealistic expectations that every one — every woman — should be a size 4. To bring that into the plus-size community, where you’re using sizes 8, 10 and 12, when sometimes the stores don’t even start carrying the clothes until size 14, you’re telling women, ‘You want to look like these models. This is what you should look like, but it’s never going to happen.'”

Look, I’m sympathetic. Like a lot of guys, I don’t find anorexic scarecrows particularly attractive, and I’d be happy to see more fashion models with some biscuits-and-gravy appeal. But does anyone really expect designers to start sending plumpers jiggling down the catwalk just to placate a bunch of feminist ideologues? It’s never going to happen.

Get over it. And fix me a sandwich.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers!

 

47 comments

  3. Damn it, did I miss the memo? Am I now supposed to have “body image” issues provoked by male magazine models?

    Guys don’t think that way. And as for women tormented by unrealistic images provided by the fashion industry, how about you stop taking your cues on personal appearance from gay men?

  6. The thing is… women models are not meant for you. They are meant to be a fantasy identification object for WOMEN.. I’ll repeat, female models are meant to appeal to women. Men barely notice their looks, other than with a bewildered start. Any woman crawling around in her underwear will get a man’s attention, but frankly, most men prefer a woman with breasts and an ass.

    I could claim that women are naturally insecure in their attractiveness, since attractiveness is so important to a woman’s prospects and security, just as men are naturally insecure about their physical strength and earning power. But I don’t claim that.here.

    So, feminists, stop blaming me for your self-esteem and “body image” issues. If you want fatter models, buy products advertised with fat models. Capitalism will take care of the rest if there are as many of you as you claim there are.

  9. She has a little more on her waist and hips than the present ideal. But, then, so do I. And I run and do martial arts. But I’m 50….

  10. The War on Beautiful Young Women And The Men Who Appreciate Them™ will never end. It’s too convenient for the resentful Marxists of the feminism-industrial complex. #LifeIsntFair #CantRedistributeEverything

  14. Enh, if you’re going to be a plus size model, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask that you actually be big enough to wear the clothes that places like Lane Bryant sell. I’m not tall enough or big enough to model for Big and Tall men’s catalogs and stores, so I wouldn’t apply for that kind of job.

  18. Women sometimes claim this is a feminist issue. If so, it doesn’t reflect well on them.

    I can leaf through Esquire, see a picture of a male model who is slender and think, “Hey, buddy, lookin’ good!” without thinking I need to run out and look like him. I know that models need to be thin for photographic purposes, generally.

    And I may look at a guy with a great physique…I don’t know, The Rock or someone, and I might think, “I should work out more.”

    But I don’t run around whining that “society” has told me I have to do either. That women do, that if you see a petite model (I don’t know what size 4 is) you are being told to look like that–by whom?

    By the way, although the feminists like to blame this on men, they can’t. As far as I know, the fashion industry is mostly run by women and gay men.

  19. “It’s hard to believe that the very women who are meant to empower plus-size ladies by showcasing body diversity…”

    Er… I thought that plus sized models were meant to sell clothes.

  21. You’re doin it rong.

    I get to carry a little extra weight, and I don’t have to suffer through running and martial arts to maintain my cushiony contours.

  22. Bob, I am a woman who really loves martial arts. Running, not so much, but it helps with my breathing and other things. I find my weight issues irritating, and that they get between me and what I enjoy doing – but I’m not apt to get up in arms about my “body image”.

  23. “Madest thou look. Here endeth the trick.”

    (Sorry. I found that commercial pretty funny)

    Anyways, you encouraged me to look. You’re right. They definitely looked “plus” size to me.

  25. Well, I like Bruce Lee movies, so I’m doin it rite. I used to sing, so I still have really good lung capacity from that. Highly recommended.

    But good on ya. I was only funnin.’

  28. Women are beautiful; they don’t have to be perfect physical specimens. Just stay healthy, enjoy being yourself. A good heart, sense of humor and open friendly smile. Hey, if she has a great bod; tiny to buxom it’s ok with me.

  30. Marketing isn’t about improving the self-esteem of those receiving the messages. It’s about making them want to buy the clothing being marketed.

    You can bet the major manufacturers and retailers have tested all sorts of approaches and models before sampled audiences. If people bought more clothes from bigger “plus” models, we’d be seeing them all the time.

  32. Good for her that she is a gym addict. If she exercises right, she will keep her heart in good shape, build muscle, and help her metabolism. And hopefully she will work out her diet and lose the extra weight someday, but then she has all the rest already fit.

  33. But they used to tall and slender. Now they are tall and anorexic. Most of the runway ones have a beautiful face and a horrendous “just bones” body.
    And nobody walks in a more clunky way than current runway models. It’s deliberate but still quite ugly.

  36. “Guys don’t think that way.”

    Because they are never tormented by an “appearance obsessive” environment like many girls and women are. You have no idea how crazy and warped the mind of zillions of people are in that respect, and they constantly react to women based on their obsessions with thinness. It’s relentless and can be very noxious for young girls who don’t have alternate reinforcements around them.
    Social conditioning is a brutally powerful thing.

  38. As a plus-size woman (currently an 18, down from a 24), I prefer actual plus-sized models. It makes it much easier to envision a dress or sweater on me when the model is actually, you know, fat. This is not to make me feel better about myself, but to help me shop online. When Nordstroms uses a woman who is a size 12 to model clothing that they are marketing to women who are a size 22, it just makes it more difficult to shop.

  45. Nothing says “Fen’s Law” quite like supposedly “feminist” rags shoving unhealthy body images down girls’ throats to appeal to the heteronormative patriarchy.

Comments are closed.