I’m sure that we are no strangers to the fact that the beauty industry rakes in billions of dollars each year by making women feel less sexy, less beautiful and unworthy of looking in a mirror with pride and confidence.
Studies have shown that children as young as 4 years old are weight prejudiced, so much so that girls have now started dieting at the age of 5. It is said that 20 years ago, 8% of models were thinner than the average woman and today we have more than 23%. The down turn was when designers such as Ralph Lauren sparked the cult of women eating one grape a week by firing size 4 models; claiming that they were “too fat”.
However, there is a new movement arising! A movement that is long overdue! A movement of plus-size models and body positivity! This however is not a new concept. The fight for normal women to strut their stuff on the runway has been active since the heroin chic era of Kate Moss. Activist such as Tyra Banks fought for more curvy women on the runway, but there has never been as big of an impact as Tess Holiday.
Tess Holiday is a plus sized model (height: 1.65m and dress size: 24 UK) who recently signed to one of the biggest modelling agencies, Milk Model Management. This has made history in fashion for she has taken the fashion world by storm by appearing in magazines such at Vogue Italia, and being named as one of the top six plus-sized models in the world. Not only has Tess turned the tables, but also Calvin Klein has contributed to the surge in body positivity. Calvin Klein has made a size 10 model their cover girl, which I highly believe is a step in the right direction.
With a change in norm, there is no surprise that controversy follows. Models such as Naomi Campbell have become angry at the fact that models such a Tess Holiday are being glorified. Naomi stated: “This woman, [Tess Holiday] is glorifying disordered eating and poor body image.” Although multiple people have backlashed at Naomi for her comment, I do believe she had a point. We should not glorify being overweight, however b*tching about a women’s weight should not be tolerated either. Studies have shown that bullying someone over their weight can lead to a 2½% chance of them becoming obese. The point that Naomi has missed is that Tess has opened the gates for women with different body types to be a part of the fashion industry. As long as a woman is healthy and in HER best condition then why shouldn’t she turn the world into her catwalk?
Perhaps in the future we shall see women of all shapes and sizes: fit, thin, curvy, thick, short, tall (the key is DIVERSITY) etc. – gliding down the catwalk and the concept of a “perfect” body will be a distant memory.