When I think of all my female friends, I am hard pressed to find one who isn’t riddled with insecurities. While they may conceal them well, all it takes is a few strong cocktails and some gentle pressing before we are all tearfully divulging life-long battles with our ‘wide thighs’ or ‘chubby cheeks’. Despite my reassurances that they are all extremely beautiful (chubby cheeks and all), my friends have cripplingly low self-esteem. In this respect, I believe size 0 models have much to answer for. Perpetuating the image of ‘heroin chic’, the disturbingly thin fashion industry has created a generation of unconfident, uncertain and anxious young women. Evidently, change is needed.
It was thus with a great deal of optimism and an open mind that I watched the Channel 4 documentary, ‘Plus-Sized Wars’. To say I was disappointed would be quite the understatement. Presenting clinically overweight women as role models, the lengthy programme was as damaging and corruptive as any ‘Vogue’ cover. In a country where 60% of teenage girls are deemed ‘overweight’, the modelling agencies featured in ‘Plus-Sized Wars’ simply encourage this unhealthy trend. Rather absurdly, the programme asserts that we must combat anorexia with, well, obesity.
‘The reality is I am fat. It’s a word. It’s an adjective and I don’t care’, proudly proclaims Tess Holliday, a particularly ‘instafamous’, size 24 model.
A part of me wholly admires this young woman’s confidence. While she actively embraces her extremely large figure, my friends and I cannot even make peace with our own supposedly ‘bulging’ thighs. Effectively, Holliday’s devil-may-care attitude makes a refreshing change. Nevertheless, fat is not healthy. Vanity aside, the model will no doubt be suffering from a plethora of illnesses and complications that come with every extra pound. To ‘not care’ for her own well-being is highly negligent.
Above all else, the likes of Tess Holliday and her equally large peers undermine the whole anti-size 0 campaign. To upmarket designers, these larger ladies suggest the sole alternative to the super skinny is the super-sized. All the while, Britain’s middle-woman yet again goes unfairly represented.
Discussing the matter with my female housemates, we are very much in agreement. All we ask is that designers begin celebrating the average, healthy young woman. When will the fashion industry finally hear our voice?
Edited by Mackenzie Orrock
Image Source: obutecodanet.ig.com.