Congratulations go out to Ashley Graham for landing the cover of Sports Illustrated, becoming the first plus-size model to do so.
Yay!
Happy-dancing ensues!
High fives all around!
BODY POSITIVITY WINS, FAT-SHAMING LOSES!
Not so much.
Turns out, a plus-size model gracing the cover of a popular magazine doesn't really do a whole lot of good for the plus-size community but may, in fact, do more harm than anything else.
How so?
The average American woman wears a size 14.
Ashley wears a size 14/16.
"Plus-size" in the fashion industry encompasses sizes 12 - 24.
This means that, yet again, the plus-size woman being featured is on the smallest end of the spectrum, and the plus-size community is supposed to whoop, holler and cheer while everyone praises Sports Illustrated for being so progressive as to put someone on their cover who isn't their typical size 00-10.
By the buzz it has been receiving, you'd think something truly freaking legendary has happened when, in reality, a magazine finally showed that there's more to the range of womanhood.
"This cover is for every woman who felt like she wasn't beautiful enough because of her size. You can do and achieve anything you put your mind to." #beautybeyondsize - Ashley Graham's Instagram
#beautybeyondsize12, maybe.
Maybe I'm greedy. Maybe I want to see models like Tess Holliday grace the cover of such well-known magazines. She's a size 22... that's just as within the plus-size range as Ashley Graham.
But we aren't seeing that, and it's likely that we won't... not when a size 14/16 is such a huge freaking deal and it took THIS LONG for a size 22 model to be signed by a major agency (in the U.K., not even in the U.S.)... and not when we keep hearing that the body positive movement promotes unhealthy lifestyles instead of loving yourself.
Let's face it: Seeing a fat person love themselves and live their life still makes us uncomfortable.
Until that changes - until we force that to change - we will keep being distracted and deceived by smoke-and-mirrors, tricked into thinking that our bodies are almost there... when, in reality, there is no 'there'.
There is no 'normal' size.
There is healthy, there is able, there is what we're born with, what we choose to make of it, how we choose to form it, how we take care of it (inside AND out)... and the knowledge that, no matter how good you treat yourself and how much care you show your body, someone will always tell you that you're doing it wrong.
Someone (who is not your doctor)
will always tell you that you *must* be unhealthy, with all that fat.
Someone (who is not your psychiatrist)
will always tell you that you *must* be eating your feelings.
Someone (who is not your nutritionist)
will always tell you that you *must* only be drinking soda.
Someone (who is not your significant other)
will always tell you that you *must* have confidence issues in bed.
Someone (who is not your stylist)
will always tell you that you *must* be too terrified to wear a bikini.
Someone (who is not you) is telling you to change, because you make them uncomfortable.
Make them uncomfortable. That's when perceptions are forced to shift.
Dare to BE,
Krystal
For more fat, fierce, in-your-face goings-on, check out Bigger Expectations on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.