Sincerely, Plus-Size Women
By Carina Noyola
Medium 44
We are tired. Tired of the media making it “look” like plus size women are inclusive in the fashion industry, and then really just… not being fully included. Women are subjected to fit categories that are virtually impossible to fulfill. “Company’s only like to feature “plus-size” models that are aesthetically pleasing to see and that in reality aren’t even plus-size at all,” said Yulissa Arevalo, age 22. The story that they tell is with the intention to sell numbers. To put this into perspective, if you were to come across an ad for jeans, click on it - the average size that most retailers stop at is a size 14, some even 10, and 12. If you were lucky enough to be looking at a site that carries plus size, you had to switch tabs and look for an entirely different pair of jeans.
Because, guess what, the cute pair of mom jeans that you saw on the ad does not come in a size 14, even though 68 percent of women wear a size 14 and above, according to the 2018 article “Size by the Numbers” from Racked. Hennesey Lopez, age 19, remembers a time where she walked into a store with the intention of buying a cute piece she saw advertised online and found herself to walk out with a completely different experience than most of the girls in there. “The store’s one size fits all did not apply to me when I was trying on clothing and made me feel horrible about my body,” she said. It was an experience that she found to be daunting. “I wasn’t considered exactly overweight for my height but I did have more meat to me.” When women say inclusivity is present, we mean it’s easy to spot. It’s as easy as picking up your phone and opening Instagram seeing ads that cater to a specific type of plus-size woman. What do you see in your explore page? Tall, thin, white (and dramatically tan), blonde Instagram models. Fine. But how often do you open your discovery page, as a plus-size woman, and find a plussize woman? Almost never. Let’s take that up a notch and add in the lack of color in these models. If you were “lucky” enough to see one, chances are you are looking at either Ashley Graham, Tara Lynn, or La’Tecia Thomas. All white females. Also known as 3 of the top 10 plus size models as named by ThePhotoStudio. com, in their article, “Top 10 Plus Size Models of 2018” (which also happens to lack color - with a total of one black model). That means 90 percent of the world’s top plus-size models are white, as if the margin wasn’t small enough. Samantha Beltran, age 17, takes a look at the statistics presented before and makes one thing clear, “The model industry needs to expand more,” she said. Remember the pair of jeans that you were looking for before? Take a look at the model, what else is similar about her and the one you saw before? Don’t notice anything? Okay, take a look at the first plus-size model
