to think that size 14 models are NOT plus size they are just NORMAL!

[mamazon]

Most models are around 6ft. for their height being a size 14/16 is perfect for their body.

they aren't "plus size" they just aren't underweight.

I dont think it is a great thing that a magazine has dedicated an issue to plus size models. I find it depressing thaht society has such a scewed vision of beauty that a girl that is in total perfect proportion for her body is considered only beautiful enough for a special fat issue rather than the usual mainstream version.

im actaully getting a bit annoyed at the constant use of the term plus size for normal women. they aren't! I am 6'1 and a size 24/26. I am a plus size person. as in i am outside the normal range for clothing and sizing.
someone with not an inch of excess fat on them isn't.

Now do not get me wrong, i do not want to see more Beth Ditto front covers.
What i want is for the media and fashion industry to stop making normal healthy women feel that they are anything but that. why does it have to be a special healdine grabbing edition of the magazine just because they use women who do not have their ribs poking out of their skin?

All we have to do to redress the balance (pardon the double pun) is to boycott haute couture. Not buy the magazines - Vogue springs to mind, of course. Obviously most of us can't buy the clothes. Many of the designers consider women as a canvas for their art. As long as we "buy" into it, it will continue to prosper.

Personally, I don't have a problem with super-skinny models. I've always understood that fashion isn't about flattering women. Haute couture is "art" and most of the rest is about making women want what they can't have without a great deal of self-sacrifice and/or hard work, not to mention poor nutrition. A consumer places more value on something that's difficult to afford, to wear, etc than something that anyone and everyone can have.

Yes, clothing looks better on thin women (and men). Yes, it's much more difficult to create clothing that's becoming to a healthy woman with a normal BMI. You've heard the expression "she can wear anything; even a bin-liner would look good on her."

Some clothes look better on the very slender (the leather leggings in fashion now look fantastic on long thin legs), some look better on the pleasingly plump (wrap dresses look wonderful on plus size bodies). Some look better on muscular athletic bodies (sleeveless or cropped tops for example).

Different shapes and sizes are beautiful. It helps nobody to attack any group of people based on their looks, which is such a small part of what makes us. I love clothes and makeup but they are there for fun, for ornament, to brighten up the day, not to define us.

It takes a lot of effort but you have to consciously reject narrow "standards" of beauty and find the things that please you.

The writer Wendy Shanker notes that at her mother's funeral, people shared many thoughts and memories, but nobody said what a shame it was that she never got into a size 12 skirt. We are here for a short time, don't waste it worrying about things that don't really matter because people who want to sell you things tell you that you should.

It makes me sad to see the rivalry between "thin" and "fat" too, nobody is a better person than another because of the size of their arse. We are all "real" women and the most beautiful are the ones who are beautiful on the inside! It doesn't matter how pretty you are if you're a bitter twisted old clout or how ugly you are if you're kind.
Being bitchy about other women never made anyone better-looking either.

Yes, Sillybreeks. You've said it perfectly. WRM is how you feel. What makes you happy.

I look at haute couture (sorry to bang on about that specific end of fashion but I adore it!) as I would a painting in a gallery. I appreciate the artistry and the beautiful, seemingly perfect bodies and faces of men and women who bring it to life but I feel no personal connection. I wear what suits me and what I feel comfortable in.

I was taken shopping once by my lovely ex-boss (who thought I should dress better, and I am sure she was right). She is quite small (well to me anyway) moderately curvy older lady originally from Antigua. One of the most beautiful and certainly the most sassily dressed lady I've ever known. As we looked about I saw many things that looked fabulous on her and she saw many things she thought would look great on me. More fool on the fashion industry that their concept of beauty is so narrow.

expat - you are right. However, you must surely be aware that for far too long now there's been a powerful culture of body fascism which has had a hugely detrimental effect on women's ability to see their curves as normal and acceptable.

Not only that but the culture affects straight men, too - their perceptions of women's attractiveness have been massively altered by the endless barrage of images of artificially gorgeous, skinny girls/ women in every corner. I know grown men who have an absurdly teenaged attitude towards women's bodies, whereby they reject any woman who doesn't look like a model as being 'unattractive'. Now, of course, these men have to take responsibility for the fact that they are being utter dicks. But at the same time our society has to take responsibility for the fact that it has made them more dickish than they might otherwise have been.

Most girls' bodies fill out in one way or another by their late teens, yet before this happens the fashion industry parades them on the catwalk in women's clothing, and then they become the emblems of what is beautiful in a woman. When advertising clothes for women, it is simply wrong to use girls. There are no two ways about it.