Going Green - Plus-Sized Model?

This post originally appeared in May of 2008. As I strive to - once again - reach a healthy weight (this time with the help of bariatric surgery), this topic remains very relevant. 

I continue to struggle with what healthy looks like, and and feels like. I still cannot look at my reflection without my head filling with negative self-talk - things I would never even think about saying to anyone else.

This post is a reminder that the labels "society" places on each of us are often made from a very subjective place.

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Have you ever watched America's Next Top Model? 

I've peeked in on this show on occasion - my thirteen year old step-daughter watches it incessantly when she visits - but it's not a show I'd ever seek out. The other day I thought I'd watch an episode to see which cheeseburger needing beautiful young girls were in the finals for cycle 10. I was surprised to learn that the token "plus-size" (or as they like to call it in the industry, "full-figure") model was in the final three. That surprise turned to horror when I saw these photos of one of the final three contestants and discovered that she was the "plus-size" model!



What? You've got to be kidding me! This beautiful, healthy looking, 20 year old girl (Whitney Thompson) wears a size 8/10 on a bloated PMS bad day - and we are going to call her a "plus-size" model? Since when did a healthy weight become "plus-size"? You can't even buy a size 10 in a plus-size store - they start at size 16.

Much of what I've read on Whitney's win talks about how great this is for young girls - to see that even a "plus-size" girl can win America's Next Top Model. I say bullshit! This does little more than distort the perception of "normal".

Do you know what's even worse? For years, men have taken the brunt of the blame for encouraging the stereotype of super thin as attractive, sexy, and beautiful and I don't believe it for a minute. It's not the men that encourage this stereotype, it's the women. I've read quite a bit on Whitney's win, and it's the women who say, "She sure put on a few pounds after they selected her," and "She looked better when she was thinner."

Looked better? She looks fabulous! Maybe as women we should stop being so critical of each other, and of ourselves, and recognize the beauty each one of us exudes.

And maybe ... just maybe ... that attitude will trickle down and begin to alter the way our society defines beauty.