We live in a world where the women are constantly catching up with men. Whether it be voting rights, jobs, salaries you name it. Females fall behind in every category except for one. Plus-sized fashion is more widely accepted with women as so compared to men.
For so long the modeling industry has displayed two types of figures for men: there is the athletically built one like Tyson Beckford or David Beckham, then there is the scrawny, tall, and lanky yet awkwardly chic one with a body like Captain America before his transformation, used for the runway shows of YSL and Prada.
Small, unheard of modeling agencies have dipped their toes in the water of plus-sized male models. But it has yet to make it through the doors of any of the world’s foremost agencies. Which include but are not limited to the following: IMG, Wilhelmina, Elite, Ford Models, and Next Model Management. Until now that is.
IMG has decided to hop on this bandwagon and created a category for the heavier male model labeled “brawny”. Zach Miko, a “brawny” model, was the first plus-sized male model ever to be signed with this, or any major agency for that matter.
Society is simply unaware to this lack of representation for all male body types in the modeling industry. Danny Franzese, who famously played the character of Damian in ‘Mean Girls’ shared his thoughts on the topic, “I think body types are often dictated by the silhouette of the clothes that wear them. Mens jackets and shorts are very forgiving but I think there are all kinds of things underneath people’s clothing.”
This is interesting because if you were to ask any random person walking down the street whether or not they believed men had a wider range of what is considered a “normal” body type as compared to women, their answer would be yes. So I took this thought to the streets of NYC and asked a five strangers hanging out in Central Park. The answers were unanimous, everyone responded with some version of the word “yes” or “do you even have to ask?”. We witness it every day in the media and in Hollywood. Take Amy Schumer for example. In Glamour magazine’s summer issue, Glamour Special Edition: Chic At Any Size, she was being praised for having a body that real women could look up to. But, guess what? SHE IS NOT PLUS-SIZED. And not even close. Amy Schumer is a size 8, which when converted to small, medium, or large… It is none other than a medium.
Richard Niles, a theatre arts professor at Marymount Manhattan College, had a few compelling words to share in regards to this topic. He agrees that there is a huge misrepresentation of men in both the modeling industry as well as many films. “Look at who is in charge of film, which are production companies, most of them are owned and operated by men,” mentioned Niles. He then brought to light this idea of a term called the gaze, and how we are always experiencing a man gaze through media. He refers to the gaze as a term to describe the manner in which the actor/model/celebrity is being looked at. More often than not it is from a man’s point of view. “Men do not want to see themselves up there either on the big screen or the runway in the bodies that they currently have,” stated Niles.
We are constantly aware of the female body and what it looks like. When a casting director is selecting the clothes for a female model the goal is to accentuate, enhance, and define the body as much as humanly possible. Whereas when dressing men, casting directors are far more flexible. When a man places a blazer on his body you can tell absolutely nothing about the shape of his body and what is going on underneath. However, when a woman throws on a trench coats, you can see every single curve in her body.
It is so interesting to glance through a women’s magazine such as Cosmo, then flip through a men’s magazine such as GQ. Women’s magazines are aware of all body types from their personal ads and articles as well as the paid advertisements. Meanwhile flipping through a GQ, the experience is quite the opposite. Every model from GQ’s April 2016 issue has the same athletically built body shape. GQ could clearly take a few helpful hints from their friends within Condé Nast.
Style for men of size is neglected. Fast fashion stores such as Forever21 and H&M have their regular women’s sizes of XS-L while the men’s departments carry sizes XS-XXL. Men didn’t have to fight against the fashion and modeling industry to get the larger sizes noticed. In recent years it has been the women of size fighting for a plus section featuring sizes XL-3X, thus resulting in models of that size to be recognized as well. But since those sizes for men already existed in stores, there was not much for them to fight for.
Social media is constantly under scrutiny and receives a bad rep most of the time. But many other cases it can aid in bringing awareness. In this particular case, regular people are able to fight back against magazine covers for their mass amounts of photoshopping and prove what the real normal is, “Communication has become so widespread, cultural changes are really speeding up,” said Niles. It will be a long time before plus-sized or “brawny” men hit the catwalk, but at least society is making a start.