How Sizing Hurts

How Sizing Labels Hurts

There has been a contest where women were asked put what the size they were on a card and put it next to them. This could be good and bad. On the good side, women are proud and satisfied with their size. On the negative side, a judge that likes thin body types will vote for the thinnest lady and neglect the rest of the women. The prize would have been a picture with the woman beside her size in the magazine.

The clothing industry pays more attention to thinner sizes. It is like the thinner a person is, the more clothing choices there are. I have experienced this myself when I lost the weight. I also can tell you it becomes down right addicting! I wanted to try for the next size lower than the specified number than what my therapist set for me. I had this thinking if I could go down one more size, I could be worth something. A couple years ago, I got myself down to a real small size and my therapist was worried about me because she knew I wouldn't stop. She gave a wake up call and now I am back to my “agreed size.” I still struggle with this mentality. I do remember a time when I was a young girl, my birth mother Pat, told me that, those clothes over in that section were for “fat girls.” The inference was made that if I was fat, I would not be loved or accepted.

There are very few stores for, plus sized women. Lane Bryants does sell excuslively to those that are in the plus sized category. There are some sections in Meijer's and Walmart's. It is a big section though. The message to me is that plus sizes aren't rewarded but being small is.

I watched a documentary “Dying to be Thin,” it was neat to see a lady that used to model for small clothes, crossed over into plus sized model. Her explanation was, she saw what the fashion industry does to women. There were models, dying because they were told they have to fit into a real small size and abused their bodies with diuretics and diet pills, till the body shut down. It was good to see th at model say, “hey that is enough!” I am happy with who I am and I don't need to abuse my body!”

I would like to say that, it may take a long time for the fashion industry to be more accepting of what they deem as plus sized clothing, but if more women are willing to say I am fine the way I am, then there will be less body shaming, also that women won't be criticized for going to stores like Lane Bryants or shopping in the “bigger clothing department. Hopefully in time, there will be more fashion shows with, Lane Bryant's models. There are a lot women who do wear double digit sizes and they want stylish clothes and not be penalized by the fashion industry because they aren't that size.

In closing,there should not be anymore models starving themselves to death to get into a size that their body was never made for! I did hear in another documentary, that fashion industry will no longer allow real small sized models on the runway, due to the body image and England has cut out small sized model advertisements on their subway stations. So good for them! Let's hope that the fashion industry shows more body-positive love for other models!