What I have noticed is that most women who are on the bigger end of the clothing spectrum are not particularly proud to wear that tag on their shirt or pants. There is this general fear of having your dress size leak into the double digits, surpassing what we are taught is a sexy number to be, that there is a possibility of being too much to love or even respect.
Honestly, I used to think the same way. I grew up before any of my female classmates had the chance to- every class photo looked like a parisian skyline featuring me as the Eiffel Tower. The number of my years would match my pant size only to plateau to an even 14. The world is filled with Photoshopped bodies that are pinched and warped only to do the exact same thing to our minds, making us believe that if we have more person then we are less of one. I would lie about my size, cut off my tags, and tried to figure out why I found myself undesirable.
While I wanted to blame something outside of my control, the problem was ultimately my fault. It was not that I ate too much -- it was that I cared too much. I held the beauty standards set by society too dear to my heart, causing my body image to be more altered than the ones in the underwear ads. I was holding onto the absurd ideals that were constructed by society.
The minds that make up society are not you, or your neighbors, or someone you passed once in a crowded city, or even people. It is the collaborative input from corporations to convince the consumers that we need to hold certain ideals and values closer than others and even implying that some values are wrong.
For instance, the classic case of a car commercial, filled to the max with beautiful models and booze, implying that if you had the car being advertised, your life would resemble the scene being played before you. Every time it flashes in front of our eyes we automatically compare it to our own lives; and it is the same for anything you can buy: alcohol, insurance, TV services, and clothes. These services are meant to be easily and readily accessible to those that view it -- all of them except clothing. Netflix fits every possible media streaming device, but if women cannot fit into the clothes that would deem us acceptable, what does that make us? Unacceptable? No.
We might be told that pretty girls must be petite, but why does that make it true? (If you have not picked it up by now, this is me telling you it is not true.) Up until the 20th century, a full figure has always been beautiful; don’t let the past 100 years over shadow the previous 2,000. Ditch the idea that your worth is determined by how small your number is, forget the notion that you are ugly because you wear something bigger than a size 12, abandon all thoughts of altering yourself for the world- you decide if you are beautiful and no one else, especially not cheap clothing stores who use body shaming to attract business.
I have learned to stop comparing my body to those around me, and started to love every curve, lump, stretch, and dimple that makes me who I am, and you should be as well. To all my plus size pretties -- love yourself and what you look like, take pride in your appearance, and change for no one.
P.S. If you are a curvy girl like me, and catch yourself hating on your hips, take a deep breath and remember that no one called Marilyn Monroe ugly, so what makes you any different?