Jezebel has discovered that you don’t have to be skinny to be stylish! It’s true!

While it’s kind of hilarious that this is an exclamatory phrase full of revelation, as if they have just discovered fire or similar, I love that the fatshionistas, who really are wickedly stylish, are getting major media attention and love for their fine, fine selves over at Jezebel. And while I am not blown away by their discovery, I know that the writer has a point–people really aren’t used to seeing positive, attractive photographs of well-dressed fat women.

To be honest, while scrolling through the images, it was startling, at first, to see picture after picture of “fat,” plus-sized, or heavy women. Not because of their bodies, or their clothes — they look fantastic — but because I just wasn’t used to it. Street fashion sites like The Sartorialist, Street Peeper and FaceHunter feature people who love getting dressed up, playing with fashion and making their own clothes, but even though they are “real” people and not models, they are, 99% of the time, slender. On “reality” TV, we see people with size 0 bodies in fake situations; even the Dove Campaign For Real Beauty had a Photshop scandal regarding its ads. The world of magazines, TV and movies so often excludes women who are above a size 12 that even though you see these people everyday — at work, on the street, in your family, in the mirror — it still seems odd to see them grouped together, looking stylish on a website. But while it was shocking to see these women, posing and proud, it was also refreshing — you’ve got to love a woman in a pretty dress with a cupcake tattooed on her shoulder. While part of me wonders what Anna Wintour would think of the Fatshionistas, the other part of me is so glad they don’t care.

This really is a kind of revelatory, brand-new idea to some people. Which sucks. But more articles like this and maybe someday it won’t be.

Posted by jenfu

Filed under: Advocacy, Fashion, Fat Positive, Media