The Term “Plus-Size” Pisses Me Off.

The other day I was reading this article on Yahoo:  How Shopping with a Plus-sized Model Made Me Face My Own Body Issues.  And I started getting pissed off and fired up about the word Plus Size.  WTF kind of word is that?  Who invented that shit?  To me that’s an offensive term for women who are completely normal.  And instead of making women feel normal, it makes them feel like shit, particularly in the fashion industry where apparently a size 0 or 2 is considered normal and desirable.

As a person who can appreciate female beauty, I think that people who are size 0 or 2 are not as sexy as women who are size 8, 10, 12 or 14.  They are too skinny, they don’t have the same curves (No offense to people who are naturally skinny! Of course).  The model in this article is frankly beautiful.  She has a beautiful shape.  Why should she be considered “plus-size”?  That term is disgusting and offensive and I’m not sure why we as women allow terms like that to exist in the world.

And to have plus size mean size 12 or 14?  In the article is said it was great to see women of size 8 and above on the runway.  Fucking WHAT?  I’m a size 8 – 10.  I’m really really normally sized and by some standards can be considered skinny (although I do have T&A).  So…really?  A completely normal sized, healthy woman is considered plus sized in the fashion industry?  I cannot EVEN fathom this and it pisses me off so badly to think of all the young girls growing up feeling shitty about their bodies because our society uses words like this to describe them. Some of the most beautiful women I know in my every day life are between sizes 8 and 14.  In fact, in real life you don’t see many real women (and I’m talking ages 26-56 and beyond) who are smaller than size 8.  It pretty much hardly exists, at least statistically in the REAL fucking world we live in.  Most women have (heaven fucking forbid) curves! And it seems like clothes are not often made for people with curves.

I was reading an article over at Too Funny Chicks the other day on this topic and about how Chick A was looking for exercise clothes and couldn’t find anything in her size.  I commented how I’m a Large in yoga pants.  So a size 8-10 is large?  What the fuck do people do who are a size 14 or 16?  I think that’s offensive.  It’s like only tiny skinny people can wear work out clothes.

The media and the fashion industry also seems to try to make it seem like men are more attracted to skinny size 0 women.  No. Just no! Mr. VS, in fact, doesn’t even want to look at the Victoria’s Secret catalog because he finds those women too skinny! If it came in the mail, he wouldn’t get excited at all.  He’d be like…snooze fest!  He’d never find a runway model attractive who was size 0 or 2.  He likes real women with CURVES.  His brother once told me, “Bones is for the dogs.”  HA!!!

I’m feeling especially sensitive to this topic since I’m having a slight weight gain extravaganza.  I just think it’s bullshit.  Like if I were to gain just a bit more weight, I’d be plus-sized.  Plus SIZED…what the fuck does that term say to you?  Bigger than average?  Why do we even need a term to describe women in that grouping of sizes?  And if there’s a term for women in that grouping of sizes, than what are women in the smaller sizes termed as?  Yeah, that’s right, there’s no fucking term for them because the implicit idea is that they are “normal.”

I don’t understand how our culture got here.  I don’t get how in the past women’s bodies with curves were celebrated.  Think of all the old masters in the 1500’s, of sculptures, paintings etc.  Yeah…all those women were curvy as hell!  And realistic and not ashamed to have cellulite or a little belly or hips!  But now, we’re obsessed with skinny tiny women.  So much so that we give people who are bigger complexes about themselves and shame them by calling them Plus sized and not allowing them on the runway or in fashion shows.  That’s just backward and fucked up. I’m amazed that it’s like a revelation that suddenly women who are size 8 and above are on the runway.  IN THIS FUCKING DAY AND AGE!!!!

So…we’ve started to tackle a lot of issues for women and for people in general (gay rights, marriage, women’s rights, transgender rights, etc) and YET and FUCKING YET, we still have terms like plus sized and women are not fully represented in the fashion industry. It’s like amazing to have a women of normal size on the runway.  I would think designers would want to make clothes for curvy, sexy, beautiful women.  But no, most of them want to make clothes that are basically hanging on a rack because the person has no curves whatsoever.  Might as well send a coat rack down the runway.

Women are supposed to have curves.  NEWS FUCKING FLASH!!  It’s how we’re made, naturally.  It’s unnatural to be super skinny and emaciated.  And yet, that is fashionable.  To look like you are starving in a world of plenty.  Backward shit.  Seriously.

Hey Fashion Industry, let’s give normal women a complex about themselves.  Let’s make them feel terrible about their bodies.  Let’s make them feel ashamed to take their clothes off or to go shopping and look in the mirror.  Let’s make them feel like shit when they have to go to the plus sized section of the store.  Let’s make them diet and struggle to lose weight.  Let’s make them feel just terrible and horrible just so you can make clothes that are hideous.  In fact, let’s make them feel like shit for their ENTIRE lives!  YEA!! Sounds like an awesome idea.  I love it.  Right on.  Keep up the good work.

My vote is that we as women get together and protest the term “plus size” and the fashion industry as a whole.  I don’t know what planet the fashion industry is living on, but it’s definitely not THIS one where women have curves.

Oh and also, apparently these women are plus size.  They look pretty normal to me.  Statistically NORMAL.