Plus-Sized Celebrities In Madison Magazine
I knew about Madison magazine from Project Runway Australia, as it is the Elle/Marie Claire of that show (“The winner of Project Runway will receive a spread in Madison magazine…”). Now Beautiful You has a post about the plus-sized celebrities who posed nude for their October issue. More pictures at the link; mildly NSFW.
The woman pictured here, Fiona, apparently lost a lot of weight on The Biggest Loser, regained it, and then settled at this current weight. The photos are lovely, but I particularly enjoyed Beautiful You’s articulate critique of this Daily Telegraph article, which chose to report on the Madison spread in a divisive way.
While I do like the magazine spread and what it’s trying to achieve, I must admit to loathing the way the Daily Telegraph has reported on it. Why is it necessary to proclaim that this story means “the size zero backlash has arrived.” How gross and banal. Such reporting only serves to say that if we embrace people other than a size zero, this then means that body shape is not ok. That’s not what this is about at all. Many people are naturally thin, just as many people are not. This should be about encouraging people to have an appreciation for their own particular size and beauty and recognise that it is possible for everyone to feel great about themselves not matter what dress, jean or bra size they may wear. It should not involve beating up on any particular ‘size’ and therefore person.
The article also mentions this ridiculous Marie Claire competition that asked readers to ‘vote’ on their favourite body type from a range of women ranging from thin to what would be considered a plus model size. Once again, this serves no purpose except to get women to compare body types (a known killer of positive body image development) and ‘pick’ what is best. Don’t you get it media? The best body shape for anyone is the one they feel happy with and can only be chosen by them, not you. No-one else gets to judge or vote on what that body shape is and we don’t need you to tell us people supposedly ‘prefer’ women to not be too thin. That’s not newsworthy at all so why the nasty competition?
Maybe we can start the size-zero-backlash backlash.
Via Feed Me!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Biggest Loser, Celebrities, International, Magazines, NSFW, Project Runway, TV
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I too am annoyed by the whole ‘Are you team skinny or team chubby’ thing that keeps getting pushed at us. Why can’t we all just be Team Happy With Our Bodies, No matter What Size It Is?
Oh, and the pics are totally hot.
Okay, so next baby step: plus sized women in fashion magazines *with some clothing on*. I mean, they’re fashion magazines, right? Which are about, um, CLOTHING?
I’m so glad that someone else questions why there is so much backlash. There are so many articles, videos, blogs, and anywhere where there is plus size praise, seems to often come hand in hand with some type of negative undertone of another body type (usually skinny or straight figures, flat chest, etc. ) I don’t know why this happens, maybe in even further attempt to make the target audience happier and feel good about themselves? But it’s not necessary. We can appreciate curves without criticizing the boyish figure. We can praise plus size without bashing size 0. Now if all of us with actually start doing that more, it would be great.
Those photos are stunning!
If our society cannot keep us hating ourselves, then we must learn to hate each other. Otherwise we’d take all that time and energy we direct toward body hatred and use it to change the world.
And boy would the People In Charge HATE that!
How long is it going to take the mainstream media to figure out that there can be more than one acceptable body size, whether that size is 00 or 26?
Yay to this post! I have ntohing else constructive to say.
YES. I would love to be part of the the size-zero-backlash backlash. How many times do we have to remind people that just because we’re fat, doesn’t mean we hate skinny women?
Thanks for the nice mention here & for all the subsequent supportive comments. I enjoyed writing the post for Beautiful You.
Cheers!