Something For Everyone: Links
1. Gabby Sidibe was on one of four covers of Elle Magazine featuring young Hollywood stars. But she was the only one whose body was cropped out. Oh, and her skin was lightened, too.
2. Levi’s has come out with new “Curve ID” jeans, with different cuts similar to the Lane Bryant Right Fit concept. They go up to a size 24.
3. Making space for all kinds of bodies when we talk about body image, from Disabled Feminists. The post also addresses the idea of making space for those who don’t love their bodies at all. A thought-provoking read.
4. 500-pound teen dies in a fire when fire crews are unable to lift her. Heather, who sent in the article, pointed out how hateful the comments are in response to this tragedy, with references to her “eating herself to death.” Ugh.
5. Shapely Prose officially shuts its doors, and Kate Harding talks about her plans for the future. The end of an era!
Want to talk about any of this stuff? I know I do! Let’s take it to the comments!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Fashion, Fatism, Gabby Sidibe, Magazines, Meta, Race & Ethnicity
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Thank you so much for linking to Kate Harding’s site—I wondered what had happened to her.
And I think cropping Ms Sidibe’s body from the cover (not to mention changing her skin color) was an idiotic, yet depressingly unsurprising, move. I don’t read Elle, or notice it, really . . . I guess that’s not surprising, either.
Hi
Here is more info about the girl who died
http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktla-obese-teen-house-fire,0,6041158.story
Jamaya Herron’s Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001452335387&v=info&ref=search
She was such a pretty girl :(
William
Sorry about that Facebook link
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100001452335387
I think WordPress is just not smart when it comes to exclamation points. Everyone, feel free to click here to go to her Facebook page! And William, thank you for the link. She was indeed a lovely girl.
I would like to know exactly HOW they knew she weighed 500lb. I mean did they weigh her before or after she died? I don’t mean that disrespectfully to Jamaya either. The whole situation is a real tragedy.
I LOVED the Disabled Feminists post. I get so sick of the idea that everyone *must* love their bodies, or else there’s something wrong with their minds.
A lot of what the writer said about the reasons goes back to Leslie Winzel’s point about beauty: they use wordsnlike “strong”, “healthy”, “natural” and “beautiful” as codes for other things. It’s still so mind blowing that someone could love themselves despite knowing full well they’re none of those things. It’s also mind blowing that someone could not be in love with their body and still recognise they are completely worthy of respect and love.
Lisette, your comment here led me to read the article that I probably would not have bothered to read. I don’t have a disability per se, but I do have a skin disease and arthritis that really piss me off and sometimes I really hate my body. To be fair, I hated my body because it was fat before I got psoriasis, which was pre-FA, but it’s a different kind of hate now because while I was still in dieting mode I felt like I could change the fact I was fat, if only I worked hard enough, where as now, I feel so powerless.
I have to weigh in on the Levi’s point- these jeans are NOT for plus-sized women. They go by waist size, and the largest runs parallel to a size 14. When I was sill wearing straight sizes (even up to a 16) I really loved Levis, but they absolutely do not cater to the plus-sized market. We have very few choices, the most popular (pushed-upon us) being those damned bootcut jeans! Now, I don’t have issues with bootcut jeans in general, but there are so many companies who push out bootcut jeans and not much else for plus sizes, which comes from that whole figure flattery train of thought. I don’t necessarily disagree with figure flattery, but I don’t think it should mean companies ignore the ACTUAL wants of their customers, and instead try to act in our “best” fashion interest.
Speaking of Elle- I just went through an old issue looking for magazine images for a collage project with my middle-schoolers and I have to say, I felt my self-esteem take a dive with the turning of each new page. There were no diverse images of women’s bodies, and it makes me crazy that there are no fashion spreads with plus sized women (read: women over a size 12). It sends such a clear message that fashion doesn’t want us, whether we have money to spend on it or not.
Sorry for the rant, I just couldn’t believe how much it got to me. I hadn’t looked at a fashion magazine in a LOOOOOONG time…
Um, I wear a size 22 at Lane Bryant/Avenue and own two pairs of size 24 “Curve ID” Levi’s jeans. Although mine are bootcut, they also had a good selection of skinny jeans where I bought them (Macy’s). So, I don’t know what they were doing a while ago, but they def make plus sized jeans in various cuts now.
Sadly, not in Australia. They’ve just brought out the Curve ID range here and it only goes up to an Australian size 14 (US size 12). So pointless.
Hmm. Not exactly pointless, since many of us curvy inbetweenies have a hell of a time finding pants.
Definitely disappointing though.
I wish we could get bigger Levis here in South Africa. I’ve never been able to wear them. The biggest they stock here is around a size 10 U.S. They’re imported so they’re strangely marketed as some kind of luxury brand, which means only tiny sizes.
I really liked Kate’s recent piece in Salon about smoking. She’s always a great advocate for reminding the population to treat human beings like, well, human beings. I’m excited to see more of her work since Shapely Prose is no more. They made Gabby look like a whole different person. It’s just odd.
Honestly, the first time I read that she smoked I was incredibly let down and disappointed. I guess because there was so much other health stuff going on over there. I was glad to read she quit. I wish everyone would.
I think all magazine covers should be more like Gabby’s (sans the skin color change, obviously). What’s the point of showing off all the (always skinny) actresses’ bodies but to make female readers feel inadequate and enforce thin body ideals among female celebrities?
This is particularly ironic in light of (one of the other Elle cover girls) Amanda Seyfried’s interview a few months ago where she says she starves herself to be thin enough to get work in Hollywood.
I kind of agree with this, it’s pretty much the same old same old and who knows how much photoshopping goes into it anyway? Magazines would never revert to doing this all the time, however, because I’m sure designers pay big bucks for their clothes to be shown not only on a celebrity, but on the cover a nation-wide magazine.
Technically designers don’t actually pay money to appear in magazines (no one does, and celebrities aren’t paid for interviews). They probably do give or loan samples of the clothes for free, which means it’s more of a mutual back scratching (magazines get use of hot clothes for their photo spreads and in turn the brands get some publicity) than any payola.
“…but to make female readers feel inadequate…”
Hey, not all female readers feel inadequate looking at skiny models. I certainly never have – yes, I have insecurities, but none relating to photographs of women I’ll never meet. And what about thin readers?
Fair enough, and good for you.
However, I honestly do believe that the ideal of aspirational thinness is so darn persistent because it promotes bad body image in the majority of the female population, and that sells all kinds of products.
It’s safe to say the majority of Elle readers are thin. The content of the magazine is geared towards thin women with money. It’s not for poor and fat schlubs like me, even though I DID read it for a while.
Anyway, I gave up Elle after they decided to publish a glowing editorial on Meme Roth. What they did to Gabby further strengthens my commitment to NOT reading this magazine or giving it my hard-earned money.
I couldn’t even find the Elle with Gabourey on the cover. The only one I could find had one of the women from “The Hills” on it. Also, I haven’t been that impressed with Elle for a while. I had been a subscriber, but didn’t renew because I felt they were doing a disservice to the majority of American women by promoting rampant consumerism, especially in regards to plastic surgery and $500 night cream.