As of September 2016 H&M has a new ad campaign, and a new message to go along with it. In a time of women pushing back against daily microaggressions and reclaiming their own bodies and day-to-day rights, many companies are rushing to support the movement. H&M is no exception. Beloved for their affordable clothes that range from cute and casual to club to businesswear, they have launched a new body positive advertisement. The video is set to a revamped version of “She’s a Lady” by Lion Babe. The original song by Tom Jones was quite sexist, trying to label what a woman should be and do. The new hit has been repurposed to shed light on how women are breaking free of traditional molds. In the video there are women of all shapes, sizes, colors, ages, and abilities and each has a very different look. There is an older woman looking 100% done with the men around her, black women with beautiful natural hair, a young woman walking into a conference room like she owns the place, chubby women dancing, thin women singing, women eating, women with armpit hair. It shows women being true to who they are, and it’s beautiful.
It’s a sweet and empowering message to all of the women who dread shopping for clothes because they know they do not fit the stereotype, or the “normal”. But, there’s a catch.
For all the women that are characteristically “plus sized” in the video, H&M isn’t living up to their promise. H&M recently announced that since they expanded their range of clothes, they will not be able to stock plus sized clothes in their stores and will be making the collection only available online. This essentially eliminates the ability for plus-sized women to go out and shop at H&M. Imagine if all stores took this approach: women of certain sizes wouldn’t be able to go out and shop at all, because nothing would fit them. It is not fair to stick some women in the background, literally keeping them in the home, to make room for women who fit the “socially accepted” body size. By doing this, stores are prioritizing some women over others based on size alone, and that’s wrong on so many levels. Despite their positive portrayal of all these different women, their actions are really saying that they don’t value “plus-sized” women. So at the end of the day, thanks for the cute video H&M, but try a little harder to be more inclusive next time.
You can watch their video here: