Giving Glamour Another Chance

When Glamour  ran a picture of the naked girl on p. 194 (otherwise known as Lizzie Miller) — a plus size model (who really isn’t all that plus-sized at size 14), readers went crazy! It was tweeted. It was Facebooked. It was spread ’round the world via email. Every woman was talking about the girl on p. 194 and how wonderfully familiar her body looked. We sent letters to Glamour telling them how much we love Lizzie and how we so much want to see more of her and others like her — in other words, more women who look like the rest of us!

Well, it seems like Glamour is listening! Though the editor Cindi Lieve takes pride in what she considers to be a long-standing dedication to featuring a variety of body types within the pages of her magazine, she admits they can do better — and I agree. Sure, you’ve seen “plus-sized” women in their pages before, but why does it always have to be in features that are about loving your body at any size (as the Lizzie Miller picture was) or dressing for your body shape. Why can’t they mix images of women of all sizes within the regular fashion photo shoots that are what make up a considerable portion of the magazine (aside from the ads — which, if they really wanted to be bold would also be held to a higher standard, demanding more representative images of the average woman)?

But in a Glamour post by Lieve entitled “Are You Ready to Start a Body Image Revolution? Oh, Wait — You Already Did!” Lieve says that starting with the November issue, “Glamour is committing to featuring a greater range of body types in our pages, including in fashion and beauty stories.” Hear Hear!

And to prove her point, she revealed a wonderful photo featuring top plus-sized models, rolls of flesh and all, on a recent episode of Ellen.

I am willing to take a chance that they are going to get this right and renew my subscription which I dropped a year or so ago. It might take time, but I think they might just finally be headed in the right direction! What do you think?