As of late, the modeling world has been taken over by women who are not afraid of showing off their voluptuous curves and not-so-toned legs.
Plus-size models have started to grace the inside of the magazines we read on a monthly basis, like Sports Illustrated and Harper’s Bazaar. For the past few decades, this has been unheard of. Sure, models like Kate Upton have broken the stereotype that models have to be rail thin, but no one has been over a size 10. That is, not until now.
In the past few months, models have been appearing that are considerably larger than a size ten. For example, Tess Holliday, a model signed to the famous U.K modeling agency Milk Modeling Agency, is 5’ 5” and a size 22. She has been in magazines like Nylon and is also the face of Torrid, a plus-size fashion line. Other models like Nadia Aboulhosn and Whitney Thompson, although smaller in size than Holliday, are also using the modeling world to show everyone that bigger isn’t necessarily less beautiful, and people are starting to notice.
Robyn Lawley, an Australian model, was the first plus-size model in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit issue. At 6’ 2, Lawley certainly does not look like a plus-size model, but according to the modeling world’s standards, her size twelve is considered plus-size.
In America, a size twelve or fourteen is considered average. These are the sizes of our sisters who are juggling school and a job, or our mothers, who have to spread themselves thin. The term 'plus-sized' means a completely different thing in the modeling world, though. To some, it means anything bigger than the sample size that many high fashion houses use, which is anything from a zero to a four; while to others, it means anything over a size ten.
With the new wave of plus-size models also comes a new wave of body positivity. Models like Ashley Graham have taken body positivity into their own hands by starting lingerie lines and swimsuit lines. Along with this, Tess Holliday has started a hashtag, #effyourbeautystandards, which has taken the Internet by storm. The hashtag is used to stress that just because you are larger than your classmates, colleagues, or even the random girl next to you on the train, doesn’t mean you are any less beautiful.
The brave women that are willing to get in front of a camera and model swimsuits, without any editing, like Loey Lane, a YouTube beauty guru who recently modeled for Skorch Magazine, is something that a lot of younger girls look up to. It is really nice to see women finally taking a stand in the modeling and fashion worlds and not just sitting back and letting other people set standards for us. Women are finally realizing that you should want to be whatever size keeps you in good health and, most importantly, happy. The real message of this movement is you should be comfortable in your skin.
Although the movement itself is based on positivity, many people have started using it as a way of slandering skinnier women. Miles Harvey, a writer for askmen.com, said in his "Top 10: Plus Size Models" article, “Forget the skeletal, sickly girls who pass as fashion models these days. A true man knows that real beauty isn’t found in a size zero.” Apart from the fact that he is setting a beauty standard based on what men think, Harvey has completely missed the point of the #effyourbeautystandards movement. He has done exactly what the movement doesn’t want: compare one body type to another. Georgina Burke, a Torrid brand ambassador, said it best in Elle magazine, “I don’t want someone to judge their body against mine and critique themselves when they look at me and use the label plus-size.”
People assume that because bigger women have been shunned by the fashion world, they will take this opportunity to rub it in their oppressors’ face, when in reality, they do not. Instead, they want to make sure that this is not just a phase in the fashion world. They want to make sure that there is as much acceptance as possible. They want to make sure that ten years from now, a size 22 on the cover of Vogue will not rock the foundation that the beauty and fashion industry stands on.
