Outrage has once again taken over the internet as popular women's magazine Cosmopolitan Australia has been slammed for calling what most of us would describe as a healthy happy woman a "plus size" model.
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| Image and text: The Meta Picture |
When compared to the waif thin catwalk models gracing the runways of Milan, Paris, New York and London, one would definitely deduct that there is a major difference in body size, but that's really not the issue here.
The problem seems to be that in today's society we feel the need to label everything and everyone, including people and their physical appearance. In doing so it comes as no shock that women of todays' society can be often left feeling like they just can't compete with unrealistic ideals of body shape and weight, when what really matters is one's health and attitude towards their own appearance.
The woman featured in the "plus size" campaign is undeniably beautiful and most certainly belongs on the cover of a magazine but what I found the most interesting part, is how the general public seem to be responding to the image. The general consensus is that the people are unhappy.
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| Image and text: The Meta Picture |
I'm most certainly not going to go cursing lines such as "real women have curves" etc etc, because I don't believe that beauty can be summed up by one particular type of body shape. I know super thin, athletic, healthy girls who are drop dead gorgeous, just as I know plenty of girls with DD's and a booty to match who fit my idea of beauty!
What worries me is that every day women are looking at images of "plus sized" women and getting down on themselves because of a stupid label. Why we can't just call all models, models is beyond me! We don't look at a size zero (yes this is a size) model and call her an "undersized model" so why the negative connotation towards the "bigger" ladies? Surely she looks after her body just as well (some may even argue better) than the "undersized model". However if we changed the label to "normal/average sized model" rather than "plus sized" model it would still be discriminating. The label is what makes girls feel inferior and insecure about themselves, not the model themselves.
I'm not at all surprised at the reaction that Cosmo is receiving about this as I've been involved in body image issues for years now as a campaigner against negative body image, and a promoter of self love, and I'm so happy to see people reacting against this negative stereotyping. I especially love the comment above and I think it sums up how I feel about this whole situation perfectly.
"...it's not men's ideas of women that are the issue, it is women's idea of women!" - Keith French
WE are the ones who have to make this change, what ever happened to feminism? We used to fight for our rights as sisters, now it seems we constantly compete with each other in a war of beauty and ideals, but what the heck are we fighting for?
I'll leave you with one last little snippet from a fabulous female artist who has always been a campaigner for women, and personally always been a role model for me. She has dealt with negative body image throughout her career and been scrutinised over her appearance, but has always maintained that she'd rather use her brains to get what she wants rather than her looks and I am absolutely 100% in love with Lily Allen for this very reason.
Her new clip Hard Out Here talks about the fact that women are marketed at in a certain way to make us feel inferior if we don't look a particular way, and she's hit the nail on the head!
We really don't need to worry about fighting a man to the top anymore because we spend so much time and effort fighting each other. All they have to do is stand back and watch you fight it out while they walk past and grab whatever it was you were fighting over in the first place. Don't be that girl, you're beautiful, she's beautiful, let's all just get along and stop calling each other labels!
