To not understand how this different from putting an anorexic model on the cover

[Spinderelle]

Cosmopolitan have a morbidly obese model on their cover this month. I am absolutely behind the idea of body positivity - after children my body is far from perfect and it’s nice to see companies like ASOS use larger women and not airbrush stretch marks etc.

But this model is dangerously obese and risking her health. How is that any different from having a dangerously thin model on the cover?

She is also a horrible bully and a con artist

How so?

I’ll never understand what’s wrong with ‘average’ sized models which could be a range of healthy sizes between 8-18 for example to represent most of the female population
I agree. Range of healthy sizes, heights, range of builds.
No need to have the two unhealthy ends of the spectrum.
Body positivity doesn't mean hi fiving people or clamouring their choices.

I think it is normalising morbid obesity. If they had put a healthy size 12 on the cover I would be all for it - I think it’s great to acknowledge that you don’t need to be a size 6 - but this is someone who is deeply unhealthy & should not be promoted.

Magazines etc just need to go with natural shaped women some fatter some slimmer but in general within a healthy range .... polar opposites at the near and far end of the bell shaped curve shouldn't be classed as something it's not, it's unhealthy and people of both ends die due to their sizes

I'm not sure one cover of one magazine sends a particular message. What would be great would be to see normal sized women on the cover of magazines - the ones that make up the majority, so plenty of size 12s to size 18s.

However, magazines like Cosmo and all of their counterparts are dependent on revenue from advertisers and the advertisers are nearly all 100% committed to women being dissatisfied with their appearance so they buy all the beauty products, spanx pants, etc. Part of that will always be using women who look AMAZING in potato sacks and any blemishes or imperfections they may have being totally photoshopped away, so we think that they are perfect and we are not. Insecurity about ourselves fuels consumption of products!

I'm willing to bet that the photos of Tess Holliday will have been liberally photoshopped so that her plus size glamour is enhanced and looks more appealing than it does in real life. It is all bollocks.

No-one is going to want to look like Tess Holiday just because she was once on the cover of Cosmo.

Of course it's not normalising morbid obesity. Ridiculous thing to say.

I don't think it necessarily sends a message that it's ok to be fat.

What it definitely does is admit that fat women exist, which the fashion industry has been in denial about since day one.

I’ll never understand what’s wrong with ‘average’ sized models which could be a range of healthy sizes between 8-18 for example to represent most of the female population

In theory, you should be right. In practise, the pendulum needs to be pushed further than you actually intend it to swing. Tess Holliday charges the debate more than an average, size 14-ish woman.

With that said, I'd very much like to see a wider range all over. I think we may, very slowly, be moving in that direction.

She is very pretty - but an unhealthy size. It's the ongoing 'everyone is a winner, no one is wrong' mentality.

Yes be happy/comfortable with how you look but it is unhealthy to be massively under or over weight.

The very thin models may encourage daft dieting and I cant see an overweight model encouraging binge eating - but it does say 'its ok to be unhealthily overweight, in fact its beautiful, you special gal!'.

Why not show size 12/14 models (or whatever the average is these days)?

What it definitely does is admit that fat women exist, which the fashion industry has been in denial about since day one.

^Hardly. I don’t want to see fat people in fashion shows just like I don’t want to see anorexic people in fashion shows.

It's not about her being an unhealthy size, because plainly she is. It's that people only suddenly start caring about health and role models when it's a fat person up as the target instead of a thin one.

I don’t want to see fat people in fashion shows just like I don’t want to see anorexic people in fashion shows.

Given that you will see far, far, far more anorexic people than fat people in fashion shows, you might do better to focus more attention on the former if you're really equally bothered by either.

Well that's not true. People are always complaining about the skinniness of models, remember the whole 'heroin chic' thing?

I think it is encouraging people to overeat... if you are attractive but a size 18, you might be thinking, oh well... let's eat what I want because even if I get to size 24, I could still model.

I think it's ridiculous. The cover girl is morbidly obese, l was shocked at this and I am overweight and have always struggled with my weight.

If we put someone who weighed five and half stone on there, there would be an outcry, so why put someone who weighs 21stone on there? So so wrong.

Let's have all sizes, yes, but not those who are endangering their health by being too thin or too fat.

It is different (for the reasons PP point out), but I agree that it's normalizing extreme overweight.

Yes, why not use average-sized models? Because that wouldn't get any publicity or controversy.

In the same way that smoking used to be normalized on TV and in the press - everyone had a fag in hand all the time, so it began to look normal.

I agree, it's one extreme to another, how about putting healthy bodies of different heights and weights on the covers.

Just use normal average size average height woman in fashion.

Literally was just thinking the same thing OP when I clicked onto BBC News at lunch and then when I saw the thread's title I assumed straight away you had seen the same article!

I just do not get it. If we cant have thin models then how can we have morbidly obese models. I think it sends a message that you do not have to worry about what you eat or about keeping healthy - which is wrong, people should aspire to being healthy (note: this does not mean thin, but healthy!)

Yes, why not use average-sized models? Because that wouldn't get any publicity or controversy.
Pretty much and the average woman is overweight and 5ft3 I think.
A range of shapes and sizes ranging from a bit under weight to a bit over weight would be better.

Its not that its about people looking at the cover and thinking "oh, she looks great im going to become obese to look like that."

Its about normalising obesity so that people slowly dont recognise the dramatic weight increase of themselves and those around them. Its already proven people in this country overeat and over feed their children because they no longer recognise a healthy portion as "its too small".

That average dress size has gone from a 10 to a 12 to a 14 and theres some people now pushing for 16 to be the average.

I’d argue she’s on the cover because she’s a celebrity (she has a huge instagram following), not because she’s a model. There’s probably an interview with her too.

People are always complaining about the skinniness of models, remember the whole 'heroin chic' thing?

Hasn't changed their popularity in high fashion though, has it?

If 20 years later, all we've got is literally one plus size model who's always the one to spark this debate, it's a slow enough progress for me not to be concerned about it just yet.

Her knees must kill