MORGAN LEGEL | OPINION EDITOR
What size is considered plus size?
There have been a lot of articles about “plus size” models written as of late. We need to set some things straight right now.
The average American woman wears a size 14. Plus-size models start at size eight. Therefore, most “plus-size” models are still smaller than the American average.
Now, do not get me wrong. I am not trying to skinny-shame anyone. I am also not trying to say the average size describes every woman. But I think the fashion world should reevaluate things. And to do that, we need to get real.
I will be honest about myself. I am a size 12. Since I was 10 years old, my size has fluctuated anywhere from an eight to a 14. That makes me a “plus size” for the latter 11 years of my life. Eleven years, more than half of my life. That includes my formative years, when media can most affect how I view myself.
According to the National Institute of Health, formative years, or adolescence, occurs between the ages of 10 and 19. That accounts for nine of my 11 years as a “plus-size” woman.
However, there are some discrepancies about the size we are and the size of our clothes. “In fact, size 14 is among the least purchased sizes out there for many manufacturers. So it seems that being a size 14 and buying a size 14 are in fact two very different things,” according to an article from cleveland.com.
So what really counts as plus sized in today’s body conscious society? According to media, plus size is above a size six, and actual sizes are not true to size, so in reality, no one really has a clue what their true size is.
If so, the world needs to drop the whole plus-size thing.
Women come in all different shapes and sizes, and this should just add to their uniqueness, not be frowned upon. We spend too much time fat-shaming and skinny-shaming, for that matter, to pay attention to anything else.
Flowers do not pay attention to other flowers while they are growing. They focus on staying healthy and blossoming, nothing else. And you know what, at the end of the day, each flower is beautiful. We do not say one flower is “fat” or “skinny” just because it is different.
And women should not refer to other women like that. Or anyone at all.
So I am proposing a challenge: Forget about “plus size,” forget about the words “fat” or “skinny.”
What I want you to do is look in the mirror. That is it. Take a long, hard look in the mirror. If any negative stigma surrounding body size did not exist, would you think of yourself as beautiful? If so, stay confident and don’t let the media or other people tell you what to think about yourself. If not, figure out what you have to do to see yourself as beautiful and do it.
We all have the right, and deserve, to be beautiful.
Illustration by Camille Bates
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I agree that fat shaming is wrong, you shouldn’t make fun of someone for their weight, but being overweight is not healthy. That’s your main point but the fact is if you are overweight you are less healthy and more susceptible to certain diseases.
You are also less healthy and more susceptible to certain diseases if you are underweight. And you are also less healthy and more susceptible to certain diseases if all you eat is junk food, greasy food, over drink, smoke cigarettes, etc. Whether people are “healthy” or not is not something that should be determined by fashion. That’s not what it’s role in society should be. Calling out unhealthy lifestyles should not happen based off of appearance, it should be based off of what is actually being observed that harms the body. And it should be called out by those in positions to help said person: professionals, worried friends/family, etc. A plus size should not be the reason someone changes their eating habits. Now, living an unhealthy diet/lifestyle? That is actually a reason someone should change their habits, in order to live longer, feel better, have more energy, etc.