This year the media has made some progress towards portraying women on different sizes. Ashley Graham has broken the mold of the stereotypical Sports Illustrated cover by being the first plus size model to appear on the cover, Women’s Running has now featured two plus size women on their covers, and Zach Miko is making waves as one of the first plus size male models. These are just a few examples of how that fashion and media industries are changing to become more accepting of all body types and diverse in their expressions. However, despite these amazing advances, two major problems still exist in regards to diversity of body types in the media. These problems are preventing progress and need to be taken care of in order for media and society to become open and happy with diversity.
The first problem we still have is fat shaming. In a society where the majority of people are not size zeros, I don’t understand why society insults and shames one another over their bodies. In the face of these new magazine covers and efforts made by plus size models, many people acted and commented negatively towards them. This is a step back, rather than embracing people who actually represent what society looks like, we are attacking. As people I know passing judgment can be in our nature, but we need to transcend that. I don’t want to live in a society that attacks people for their physical appearance, especially when those people are absolutely stunning, no matter their size. In order for society and media to portray people that actually reflect society, and look good doing it, we need to applaud their actions and show our support as a community, instead of spreading hate and judgment.
The second problem that still exists is that while progress is being made, there is still not enough diversity in the media. I don’t just want to see more plus size models, although that would be positive, I want to see women of all shapes, sizes, and appearances on the cover of magazines. People often label body image based on size, but its more than just one number. It’s the appearance of every trait, every body part, and every possible place that a person might look in the mirror and feel insecure about. A girl might be considered skinny, but feel insecure about her muscular arms, or her flat chest, or her short height. These are only some traits that first come to mind that might not be being address by any model in the current media. Diversity is not just a number or a size, it’s a combination of things that make a person unique. In order to show the population, especially young people, that no matter the size of your waist, your chest, your legs, or your arms, you are beautiful and society accepts you, we need to make more of an effort to add diversity to the media. We need to change the stereotypical image of a model into something relatable, someone a girl or boy can see a part of themselves in, no matter how they look.
