In the great movement of ’embracing the female body’ I believe we have gone too far.
‘Women of all shapes and sizes are beautiful’. Okay, I accept this premise…to an extent.
Yes, curvy women are beautiful. Yes, no women should feel inadequate for being a size 12/14. Yes, society shouldn’t make a woman feel ugly for being larger.
BUT
A woman who is morbidly obese…200lbs and suffering major health issues as a result. Is this beautiful? No, it is not. And not because it’s ‘unnattractive’ (which is IS, but that’s not my main reason for seeing it as wrong.) But because it’s UNHEALTHY. Eating junk food and stuffing yourself full of fat and unhealthy foods (and if you’re morbidly obese, don’t tell me you eat super healthy and moderately etc., that CANNOT be true) is not healthy, it’s not good and it’s not ‘beautiful. Fine, if you’re ‘happy’ to look and be that way, then go ahead, but don’t you dare tell me I’m being unfair when I say it’s not good. It just isn’t.
The whole love your curves thing (although it doesn’t really apply to me) is great and I think that no woman who is a size 14 should be made to feel unattractve because of those curves, because you can be completely healthy at that size, in fact, a lot of women are. But there is a limit.
And furthermore, in ’embracing curves’ I feel we are now discriminating against the ‘thin’. Some women have small builds and are naturally very slender. I am a size UK6, but I KNOW I eat healthily and also, a lot! I have chocolate and biscuits every day…like EVERY DAY; dinner is not over until I’ve had some chocolate for pudding. But I also eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables and whole grains. Every meal has carbs, I love bread and potatoes and pasta, but I eat MODERATELY and SENSIBLY. It doesn’t make me ‘annorexic’ or ‘unhealthy’ and I shouldn’t be discriminated against for being SMALL. Which I feel I can be.
I often have trouble finding clothes that fit me, as I have narrow hips (especially compared to my body itself…my hips are narrower than my shoulders and narrower than the standard ‘size 6 measurements’ which can be an issue for me. But I never have trouble pulling a size 16 off the rack. They are in abundance and I feel I am being discriminated against (a little, I’m not going to over exaggerate here…) for being smaller.
Mostly, however, I find it in bras. The rise of the ‘plus size model’ (a term I don’t endorse, but it’s the generally accepted term and suits my needs here) and the embracing of ‘curvier’ girls means we now have bras up to and beyone 40K…which is fine, one of my oldest friends has a ‘G’ cup (which i used to be incredibly jealous of, but she does have back problems as a result, and I’ve learned to embrace my oppisite-end of the spectrum boobs) and she used to have big trouble finding bras. People were forever saying how unfair it was that bigger girls couldn’t buy NICE bra’s that fitted.
I can’t find NICE bras that are small enough. I am a 28A. I haven’t got much, but I still need some support! I can’t go bra-less, there’s enough there to make that a problem, but more and more lingerie specialists now are not making Bras in my size! Often I find a stunning set of lingerie (I had a major issue with this at the Cosmopolitan Lingerie Show), get all excited only to be completely broken hearted when they tell me (yet again) oh, we only start from 32B.
This set from ‘Gossard’ was my pick of the night, I was madly in love with it from the minute I saw it. I would have paid a lot of good money for the set, but guess what? Not in my size…They lost out on good money and a good customer (I’d have bought other things, such as the one piece further up if they’d had my size as well) because they don’t cater to the small. Fools!
In our desperate dash towards equality and embracing the ‘female body in whatever shape or size’ (or so they CLAIM) I think we’ve gone too far. Now there is inequality AGAINST smaller women. I get told I’m too skinny, or ‘figureless’. Fine, I don’t really care what you think, but I know I’m healthy, I know I eat well and I really resent not being able to wear nice clothes and especially lingerie because I’m small!!!
We’ve embraced cruvy women. We love our larger sizes and our curvier figures. They are catered for and accepted and loved. That’s great. I completely respect that and I think it’s wonderful. But, in all this, we’ve created a new inequality and a new discrimination. I can’t find a bra that fits. That isn’t fair. We’ve done the bigger sizes, the movement has been a success. Now can we please have a movement to re-accept the smaller figures please? I want to wear nice lingerie and clothes. Why should I suffer for having little breasts!!?!?!
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