When a woman is skinny, the fashion world is her oyster. Clothes are designed for her body and she can find a variety of styles at any store. Even if she lacks socioeconomic privilege, she has access to many affordable options.
However, when you’re a plus-size woman, it’s not as easy. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average American woman weighs roughly 166 pounds, but trending fashion is not readily available for those who are considered to be overweight.
If a fat woman wants to be deemed by her peers as fashionable, she has to try harder than a skinny woman. To have “a look,” a fat woman must enhance her femininity to a higher degree and look extremely put together. Beyond the higher standards of appearance, a fat woman must be able to scrape together clothing from different stores because she has a smaller pool to choose from, making it harder to access fashion trends.
The lack of plus-size fashion stems from a wider stigma against being overweight. Americans, especially women, are often detested just for existing above a normal weight.
“Obesity is absolutely one of the few stigmatised categories where we still do think it’s OK to discriminate,” said Enrica Ruggs, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, in a December 2016 BBC article. “It’s especially interesting that it’s still so pervasive a stigma with so many people in the United States who are overweight.”
One major reason for the continued stigma surrounding overweight people is that clothing businesses are not accepting fat fashion. Tracy Jenkins, the curatorial director of New York University’s “Beyond Measure: Fashion and the Plus-Size Woman,” said in a January 2016 New York Times article that even though businesses are seemingly gravitating toward more diverse fashion, most of them are just attempting to make their companies look all-inclusive.
“Fashion’s job is to exclude. Fashion is not accepting fat,” Jenkins said. “There is just as much smoke and mirrors in plus-size fashion as in anything else.”
Because the fashion industry often excludes plus-size fashion, it also excludes many plus-size models. Though some models like Ashley Graham and Robyn Lawley have found success, most don’t make it because of harsh indsutry standards.
Plus-size models can’t have stretch marks, bat wings or excess fat in the wrong places. They are also preferred to have smaller heads because, as Jenkins put it, “You don’t want to see a double chin.”
Exclusion of plus-size models is not new to American culture. Though most people believe that there has been a recent increase in body standards, fashion has always preferred skinny women.
“People often cite the 1950s as a time when curviness was in, but that’s not entirely true,” said Elizabeth Wissinger, professor of fashion studies at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, in a July 2016 New York Times article. “Yes, curvy bodies were popular, but the people had those achievable, accessible physiques, represented by movie stars like Marilyn Monroe. Fashion was still very separate, and models were thin.”
The first fat American supermodel, Stella Ellis, didn’t make her way into the limelight until the ’90s. However, the first skinny American supermodel, Audrey Munson, began modeling in the early 1900s. This nearly 80-year gap between the first skinny model and the first plus-size model shows how hesitant society has been to accept plus-size models.
Most opponents to fat fashion argue that if the industry supports an increase in larger clothing, it is supporting unhealthy eating and lifestyle choices. However, while it is important to discuss the consequences of being overweight, the need for plus-size fashion is a completely different issue.
The fashion industry must focus on producing plus-size clothing because, whether they like it or not, most women in the United States need clothing that caters to bigger sizes. Society can continue to ignore the fact that plus-size women exist, but they do, and they are not going anywhere.
Lynne Bunch is an 18-year old mass communication freshman from Terrytown, Louisiana.