Is It REALLY Body Diversity?
January 4, 2010 by Michelle Cantrell
Filed under Love Thy Self
There’s been a lot of hype about the growing trend towards featuring body diversity in the media lately. There was Glamour’s decision to include more body types among their pages after the Lizzie Miller phenomenon. There was the decision by Brigitte magazine in Germany to ban the use of professional models, instead opting to use “real women”. Most recently, V Magazine revealed their Size Issue which has page after page of plus-size beauties displayed in full splendor.
As you may have read, my heart skipped a beat when I first saw the picture of Lizzie Miller in Glamour. I thought she was stunning, and felt a proud moment of recognition as I looked upon her stomach resting gently on her lap. Finally, I thought, someone with a body similar to mine is not only represented in a mainstream fashion magazine, but recognized as beautiful, not in spite of her “flaws” but because of them.
But as I look at image after image coming out with every new demonstration of each magazine’s commitment to body diversity, I’ve started to notice one thing. All of the plus-size bodies look strikingly similar. The women all appear to be tall, meeting the traditional model standard height of 5′10″ (ok, I don’t know this for sure, but after reading plus-size model Chrstal Renn’s new book Hungry: A Young Model’s Story of Appetite, Ambition and the Ultimate Embrace of Curves
Don’t get me wrong. I am thrilled that plus-size women are being held up as a standard of beauty equal to their traditional model counterparts. The industry is definitely headed in the right direction. I just don’t want the momentum to stall, leaving women of average height or below left out of the picture. It’s as if the fashion industry has said, “Ok, so maybe all models don’t have to be tall and skinny. The can be tall and a little overweight too.” I don’t want to come off as sizest here, or insensitive, but it seems to me (as someone who stands at 5′5″ and weighs 160 pounds) that carrying “extra” weight on a taller frame is very different to that same proportion of weight (i.e. BMI) on a smaller frame. That being said, short women can wear fat well too. Of course, that statement is an oversimplification of the issue, but then, the modeling and fashion industries seem to like to keep things pretty basic.
So am I being overly sensitive? Am I asking for too much too soon? I’m ready to see real body diversity: short, tall, fat, thin, large chested, flat chested, pear shaped, apple shaped, any shape! How about you?
Interesting you should mention this. I commented about this kind of thing at You’d Be So Pretty If…
I completely agree with what you’ve said here. For myself, I’m barely 5ft tall (if that), and although I’m “petite”, I definitely don’t have an hour glass figure- no hips whatsoever- but I don’t have the superthin look going on, either. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a model out there who was short and with a boyish figure! So I’d like to see true body diversity as well. I wonder if we’re just jumping from one extreme to another with all this emphasis on shape/size in models.
No – you are not being overly sensitive at all! While the inclusion of these ‘plus’ sized models in a mag like V is absolutely wonderful – I hope it is only just the beginning of very soon seeing alot more diverse shapes and sizes in fashion spreads. It would be wonderful to see some shorties (I am one!) as well as women with physical disabilities as well.
Bring it on!
I don’t think that the media is going to embrace variations of the ‘model’ figure just yet. Frankly, I am amazed that there is a black model in the shoot! It could have gone further and used an Asian as well, but nobody asked me about it LOL. As you asked, the heights of the models shown are (respectively, L-R as above, US dress size / height)
16/5′9″, 12-14/5′11″, 12-14/5′10.5″, 16/5′11″ (and the blonde girl not in the shot is 12-14/5′10″)
Using a larger sized model is a HUGE step for these people. As the standard excuse used for not featuring models over a size 6 in fashion mags is always “we can’t find good clothes for them”, any shoot where the models are not naked is impressive to me. Through this shoot and the one previously released with Crystal Renn, V Magazine has proven that it can treat larger models with sincerity and respect and halle-freakin-lujah for that! NO MARINA RINALDI IN SIGHT!!!
The point that someone will make if I don’t, is that high fashion models are always going to be aspirational fantasy creatures. They will never be representative of the majority of the population, because that dilutes their cache. The place you are most likely to find true diversity of age and size and shape in the short term will be in the pages of Brigitte magazine and lifestyle magazines targetted at ladies of a certain age, such as Prima UK, More, Redbook, etc.
I don’t see change in that regard happening in the foreseeable future – say 2 years. There is simply too much industry resistance, and too much money riding on keeping things the way they are. Put it this way – if we all become so happy with our bodies that we no longer subscribe to the brainwashing of cosmetics, pharma and diet industries, they will not have enough funds to advertise and therefore magazines will lose vital revenue needed to stay in print. ‘Tis a very vicious circle!!
Body diversity does exist in one special place on the web: http://runwayrevolution.com, featuring only models over a size 10, and from all over the world.
Pippa, Thank you for your wonderful insight. I agree with your comment about there being too much at stake. I wrote an article a while back about Why Your Magazine Wants You to Fail (http://venusvision.com/why-your-magazine-wants-you-to-fail/) on that very point.
I am definitely impressed with what we are saying. It’s an important step that that larger women are being recognized as equally beautiful. I guess I am just getting greedy and want more.
It sure is… IS… a start
I’ve always been a fan of fuller-figured models. There’s a great site with many images of Crystal and other plus-size models here:
http://www.judgmentofparis.com/
They’re all gorgeous.
The site’s forum also has thought-provoking discussions about body image and the media.
After looking back at how fashion magazines affected me as a pre-teen and teenager who was and still is a plus-size, it could literally bring me to tears (of joy) to see what V Magazine is doing. Between the circumstances of my own life and what the media was feeding me during that impressionable age, my self-esteem was destroyed up until I graduated college (a mere 1 1/2 years ago). I get what everyone is saying about diversity — how it’s not really diverse yet. But for someone like me, who cried when reading fashion magazines during high school about how I would never look like those girls and that I would NEVER be considered beautiful, V Magazine’s “Size Issue” means A LOT to me. This is why I disagree with this post. From my perspective, this is a MAJOR step in the right direction. YES, I want to see more diversity. YES, these are the same beautiful women as before just size 14s instead of 4s. Forgive me if I seem closed-minded, but this makes me HAPPY. I can’t sit here and say, “Sorry V Mag, nice try but it’s just not cutting it”. It’s been a struggle just to get to THIS point, and if we want it to go further we should support and appreciate what is being done and encourage movement ahead, not COMPLAIN about the fashion industry not creating diversity overnight. If you want to see more diversity, push the industry forward by being ecstatic about what is being done now, then challenge the industry to go further once this step is complete (in other words, that this plus-size showing isn’t just a trend but an actual CHANGE).
Trish, I appreciate your comment, but I really think you misunderstood my post. I am THRILLED THRILLED THRILLED to see these images. And I hope there will be many more. I encourage the industry to continue in this direction, and I’ve posted about my enthusiasm before. (For one such example you can read the post Could the Tide be Turning? http://venusvision.com/could-the-tide-be-turning/) Perhaps I need to be more clear when I make statements like the one above about how much personal joy it brings to me to see these amazingly beautiful larger women on the pages of mainstream magazines. The first time I saw the picture of Lizzie Miller sitting naked in Glamour, I nearly cried as a wave emotions overcame me.
I just feel like the fashion and modeling industries are only going to give us what we ask for. And so, while I am immensely pleased with the direction they are going in, I am not going to stop at seeing just one more type of body represented.
Thank you for clearing that up, Michelle. I appreciate you taking the time to address my comments. You’re right, I did misunderstand. I was under the impression that you and others were not happy with what V-magazine was doing because although it was a positive step, it wasn’t the step you wanted. As long as we keep supporting the people in the industry who are making these changes then I think the diversity everyone is looking for will come — maybe not as soon as everyone would like, but eventually.
Thank YOU for being so forthcoming with your thoughts. It’s our goal at VenusVision to represent a variety of view points. That being said, I completely agree with what you are saying.