There is an interesting article about the issue of size, 'Plus-Size Wars' by Ginia Bellafante in this weekend's New York Times Magazine, you can preview it online
here.
Basically it is saying that there is a shortage of plus size clothing in the market based on how many American women are actually fat. And the acceptance of fat is an evolving concept. Dislike of fat is documented back to the turn of the century era. The current fat acceptance movement is interesting, and perhaps no surprise based on what is going on with obesity in America.
Here are some excerpts that I found interesting:
"Mainstream fashion magazines have always purported to embrace diverse images of the female body, publishing periodic "shape" issues that juxtapose the thin and very thin with the moderately fleshy. But only in the last year or so have notably larger women been released from the fringes, appearing not only in magazines and on television but also in the more rarefied world of the runway"
"Government statistics show that 64 percent of American women are overweight (the average woman weighs 164.7 pounds). More than one-third are obese."
"... Still, as Americans have become bigger and bigger (though not necessarily taller), sizing has evolved to accommodate the shift. While researching old production manuals, Fasanella discovered that a postwar 10 was roughly the equivalent of a current size 2. The dimensions specified for it, in 1947, were a 32½-inch bust, a 25-inch waist and a 35-inch hip. "
"As the ideal of the elongated flapper took root, women were continually urged to mask their excess. A 1926 textbook on dressmaking cautioned "stout" women to avoid shiny surfaces because they "make the figure appear larger than do dull surfaces." Ballooning girth was the object of moral opprobrium in popular culture during the first decades of the 20th century, as the historian Peter N. Stearns outlines in his book "Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West." Tracing the genealogy of the phrase "fat slob," Stearns finds that it appears as early as 1910 in Owen Johnson's novel of prep-school life, "The Varmint." Four years later the magazine Living Age said, "Fat is now regarded as an indiscretion and almost a crime." "
The comments posted by New York Times readers are also very interesting! You can read them here.
It is certainly easy to be disgusted by this whole issue, but we all have our values based on our own experiences in life. Some people are born thin and never have to worry, it's easy for them to say "go on a diet" to someone because they've never had to, and don't know what it feels like. As a size 0 person who stays there with some discipline and probably some good genes, I will admit that I have a personal bias toward the aesthetics of thin. But I do recognize it is not so easy for many people. I do think however, that "fat acceptance" is not the correct route if it is to the degree that if affects health. It's a complicated issue that's for sure!
