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?

I have never liked tattoos but she rocks them tbf

I, like many British women, am short and pear shaped with a small bust and chunky legs. My body type is very common but hardly ever shown or represented in fashion magazines, generally when magazines claim they’re showing “real” women what they’re actually showing is tall, curvy hourglass figured women. What’s wrong with using a range of differently shaped, healthy weight women?.

This! Why do they only ever show really thin or really fat women? What about women who are just a bit chunky of thigh, or have a slight post partum belly, but are generally healthy? Where are those women in the media?

There is a TV ad campaign at the moment, I think it's for Pretty Little Thing or similar which is using fairly 'normal sized' models ie. Women who aren't really really fat, but aren't super skinny either. I would like to see a bit more of that. Although maybe with some shortarse women like me featured as well!

I think it's completely different. Not to say obesity should be 'promoted', but I honestly don't think anybody aspires to be obese, regardless of how many plus size models are in the limelight. It's a very different story with anorexic models, who can trigger vulnerable people into starving themselves.

I feel like the use of plus size models is more about promoting body acceptance than inspiring people to look that way themselves, and it's till far from the norm in the modelling world.

Again, I'm not saying obesity should be celebrated or promoted, but the reality is that more people are bigger these days and they represent a large market of buyers that magazines want to tap into. They can't just be ignored.

We're quick to offer therapy to an anorexic woman but do we offer therapy to an overweight woman to get to the root cause of why she got like that? No, we don't, we just treat the symptom by putting her on a diet or offering surgery and tell her "but it's ok if that doesn't work you're still beautiful".

What’s being beautiful or not got to do with it - isn’t it health you are concerned about?

I'm a plus size model and I don't want to look like her. Because I think she's unhealthy, mostly because she can't get up off the floor
I exercise, I try to eat well and I want to be a positive example. I don't look like a model, I'm not "pretty" or beautiful but somehow I get work
My body confidence can be horrific at times

For me health is important. Is your BP ok, your heart rate, can you exercise, do you eat a decent diet etc etc. But you can't see that in a photo so it's tricky

So show models from a range of weights, heights, skin colour, disabilities etc etc but show ones that promote health maybe? On the other hand, I'm not promoting being plus size, I'm just being me

But I'm nowhere near the same size as Tess and yes she is a con artist and took lots of t shirt orders and didn't fulfil them

@Corkscrewbetty Not trying to be argumentative here, but you are saying that living an unhealthy lifestyle is ok because she went through trauma? So, would you give the same courtesy to a chain smoker, alcoholic? I have had a particularly traumatic experience in my teen years, does that excuse me from putting my health at risk? Nope.

Only you are responsible for how you deal with tough times in your life, you can’t use trauma as an excuse for slowly killing yourself. Obesity is incredibly dangerous and should not be glamorized! And I would say the same about underweight models too…

Oh and I refuse to have my body shape or size photoshopped. Smooth my skin, remove spots or hairs but I won't have have my size changed

I’m so over all this fucking tokenistic “body positivity” shit

Why can’t there be more body indifference?

It’s the same as these fucking instamums peddling the “o but you had a baby hun, that’s amazing” to people who are genuinely trying to get to grips with the scars and changes they’ve gained lost partum

Original - about 5ft 3 and 19 stone ish I think
I'm 15 stone but I have a good 7 inches of height on her!

Size 14 is hailed as average size

Size 16 is the average. Size 14 is below average.

It differs (in my opinion anyway) as I've spent a lifetime of seeing thin in varying degrees not necessarily anorexic but definitely very unusually thin portrayed as the ideal. The odd plus size model really doesn't make a dent in how indoctrinated I am about body image.

Why not Greendale ? Women of all sizes exist in every single walk of life, what's so offensive about having that reflected by the people who make our clothes???

though being overweight is dangerous.and so is being over,everyone still has beauty in them/to them.with scared.or disabilities.i think it should be more about loving yourself and others for however they look in the moment.even over or underweight people are beautiful people.loving yourself will only go towards wanting to look after yourself.you can change ur weight (most of the time) so I think having every sort on covers with no underlining of weight should be pushed.all people are beautiful.men woman short tall shaped unshaped.round square.all have beauty within them we should be accepting of all

I honestly don't think anybody aspires to be obese, regardless of how many plus size models are in the limelight. It's a very different story with anorexic models, who can trigger vulnerable people into starving themselves

If thin models triggered people into starving themselves we wouldn't have an obesity crisis in this country would we?

People may not aspire to be obese but that is where the majority (60% overweight in the UK?) of the population are heading. It makes no sense to glamorise obesity (which is what this imagery is doing.)

I'm not really sure that people know anymore what is a healthy weight. I am bang in the middle of the healthy weight range for my height and age and I constantly have people telling me that I am too thin and asking me what I am eating and asking me how I stay so skinny. If I tell them that I am a healthy weight I get that "yeah right" look, like I am in denial.

SerenDippitty because being overweight and anoerixci or two TOTALLY DIFFERENT things.one is a mental illness.a disease.its the same as saying overweight and underweight and how they got there but you cant put overweight and anorexic together

Either way, both promotion of the extremes smacks of promoting disordered eating. It’s the abolsute fucking truth.

kateandme I don't think being morbidly obese and anorexic are totally different. Tess Holliday cannot have a healthy relationship with food to maintain that level of weight. Another poster said that she started to overeat after her mum was shot. That is not healthy eating in anyway shape or form.

We are so fucked up with our approach to food. Instead of a necessary fuel, it has become some kind of torture device or comforter in the absence of human comfort & support. Really sad.

I get ads from Figleaves in the sidebar on this site. They seem to use a variety of models in different shapes and sizes.

The difference is that no one is going to try and kill themselves to look like that.

And I say it every time on these bloody threads; anyone who thinks that being overweight/obese is in ANY WAY accepted or glamourised then you have never been overweight.

I'm not really sure that people know anymore what is a healthy weight. I am bang in the middle of the healthy weight range for my height and age and I constantly have people telling me that I am too thin and asking me what I am eating and asking me how I stay so skinny. If I tell them that I am a healthy weight I get that "yeah right" look, like I am in denial.

If you are tall, and/or a naturally muscular build it could be that you should be nearer the top of the healthy range. There is no one point on the healthy weight range that is right for everyone.

Don’t worry op, all the day people still know they are far

The difference is that no one is going to try and kill themselves to look like that.

Actually there is a growing underground scene for morbid obese fetish models who are eating to get bigger and bigger as it means more money more fans. That and the fetish culture of feeders.