Beauty is not only stick figures in size two jeans. Beauty comes in many forms, and this woman at the link is gorgeous.
I’ve been a size 9 to a 10 for the last 18 years. Imagine my surprise and outrage when I found a pair of undies the other day at Gabe Brothers listed as: Size 9 2X Plus. I was hollering loudly about it. So much so my dau, JadeyKiss was saying, “Calm down, Mom. It’s just a size printed on a pair of underwear.”
Uhm…okay, so being 5′9″ tall and a 9 or 10 is now plus size? When the bleepity-bleep did THAT happen?
Mae West was built like a brick sh**house and wore a size 16 dress. Marilyn Monroe was a size 14 dress. Both women were voluptuous and drop-dead gorgeous.
Grrr! Stuff like this really ticks me off. 
I detest how the fashion industry has brainwashed people, especially young girls. My youngest thinks she’s getting fat because she’s developing hips. I keep telling her not to pay attention to magazines, commercials, billboards, catalogues, makeup ads or anything like that. My 11-year-old baby worrying she’s getting fat because she’s growing up?
I detest how the fashion industry has brainwashed people, especially young girls. My youngest thinks she’s getting fat because she’s developing hips. I keep telling her not to pay attention to magazines, commercials, billboards, catalogues, makeup ads or anything like that. My 11-year-old baby worrying she’s getting fat because she’s growing up?When will society wake up?
August 31st, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I am also a BIG woman: I was a size 24 now a size 14 but still I am big. I can’t understand them putting 2 and 3x on the clothes I buy. UGH
August 31st, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I don’t feel a size 14 is big. To me, that’s a normal-size woman. Women were made with boobs and hips. Slim is nice, but when I see runway models who look like skeletons with skin stretched over them, something is terribly, terribly wrong.
August 31st, 2009 at 3:45 pm
I don’t know. I know I grew up in my family and I was considered over weight from age 10 but I wasn’t I was thick as is my heritage. So after the kids I was skinny and now I’m rounder than before. I’m only 5′2 and I am in a 14-16. I guess I’m plus sized now lol. I am healthy though and not barbie thin bulimic or anorexic. I tell my girls they’re not fat my eldest is four inches taller than me with a bigger bust, hips and butt but it’s toned and she is beautiful. I just hold a bat to keep the boys at bay! We are gorgeous
August 31st, 2009 at 3:53 pm
LOL! Good for you, Hales. I’m proud of you and your daughters! That’s the right attitude to have.
August 31st, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Brava, Faith! I’m a Mae West-ish myself. There was a day my size was described as voluptuous, sensual. So, Faith, if you are plus-sized, then I must be …. oh, I just got depressed! LOL!!!
Good blog, lady. Thanks for sharing these thoughts!
August 31st, 2009 at 4:19 pm
As a kid my dad kept calling me a bean pole to eat. They would force food on me, but than later in life I started to gain. Now my dad always ask when he calls have you lost any weight? UGGG I could never please him when I was small and still can’t when I’m an adult.
I’m to the point in my life where I don’t really give a fig what men think about me right now, even though for myself I do feel the need to start working out or something. But I wish I was a size 14 again! Hell I’d jump up and down and kiss the ground. I haven’t seen that size since I had my first child.
Anyway I say it’s all how you handle your self if you are happy with yourself than the hell with everyone else.
Great Blog Faith!
Trinity
August 31st, 2009 at 4:23 pm
it makes me sick that not only do we, as a society seem to worship anorexic body, but the latest trend is if you can’t starve yourself to unhealthy sickness, then put yourself under a surgeons knife. I hear of teenagers as young as 14-15 wanting cosmetic surgery, including liposuction and tummy tucks.
The fashion mags give lips service to the unhealthy diets, then in the very next issue they extol some size 0 skeleton or call a celebrity ‘fat’ because she has hips and boobs. The obsession is sick and is ruining a lot of otherwise mentally healthy young women. And I don’t see what we can do about it. Not as long as those magazines are bought up in droves. Only when the public stops buying that crap will the publishers change the images they use.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:07 pm
This topic has been a pet peeve of mine for a long time. Why do fashion designers even design clothes for women who are size -8?? The average woman in America is size 12-14. Why are they designing clothes that HANG on these skeletons?? They never look the same on real women!!
And we’re not going to talk about my size…after three kids, um, just consider it shot! LOL
August 31st, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Carol, Trin, Pat, and Laura, I’m right there with you all the way!
August 31st, 2009 at 5:25 pm
It’s terrible how much emphasis society puts on looking/staying thin. They can talk up full women all they want but they always place the skinny ones on mag covers and on the TV shows. Teens, in my opinion, are hit the hardest. Everyone wants to be like “her” and “him” and not be themselves. I went through a difficult time during this period. Yes, I suffered eating disorders. Yes, I was part of the majority who did. BUT, I also got to a point where I realized the damages I was doing to myself and for who? Mm-hm. No one.
The showcasing of thinner than paper models as being ideal in today’s world definitely brainwashes people. Everyone talks about being healthy and yet if you’re 5 pounds overweight, you’re in some serious need of weightloss. The “easy” options of cosmetic surgery doesn’t help either.
It’s so sad to see how much value our society places on being thin rather than happy and healthy.
August 31st, 2009 at 5:28 pm
It makes me worry about our teens too. On the one hand we have seriously overweight kids who do nothing to get exercise (I’m not speaking of those with medical problems that cause weight issues) and eat all the wrong things, then we have the other extreme where teens obsess about being stick thin.
August 31st, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I hear you. I’m a 14/16 gal myself, have struggled with weight all my life, which is why every heroine I write about is plus sized. It’s a fact of life. Just look around the mall and you’ll see what the “real” woman’s size is.
Be positive and teach beauty comes in many forms.
August 31st, 2009 at 6:20 pm
That’s what I try to teach to my kids. My son never judges a girl by her figure. He’s liked chunky girls, thin ones, tall ones, short ones…but my oldest dau gets ribbed a lot at school because she has hips and boobs. She gets so upset.
August 31st, 2009 at 7:34 pm
I don’t let other people put labels on me, even if they wrote it on my underwear.
Your daughter will be a fine model. Hold the chin high and exude confidence. She’ll have a following.
August 31st, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Ah, but sizes have changed since Mae West and Marilyn Monroe. (And no, 9-10 is not plus size. Not by half.) In the 1960s, a size 14 required that you have a 27” waist. I know to be a size 8, you needed a 24” waist. You can find an old pattern here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=30178332&ref=cat1_gallery_4 Now, it looks like a 14 in the 20s varied from brand, it would seem.
However, people are taller, bigger boned, and, yes, heavier. Our lifestyles are more sedentary and stressful (in a different way). Our food is packed full of preservatives and sodium. That doesn’t help.
Now, that being said, I watched part of the Emmy’s last night and nearly gagged over the twigs that crossed the stage. Unhealthy. Every single woman looked like she needed another 10 pounds on her to keep her from breaking during a mild sexual encounter. It’s what I call those who look like they willingly went to a concentration camp to lose weight. They aren’t that bad, but they are close enough.
I still say the reason fashion is not models that look like prepubescent boys with big boobs (usually fake) is because, well, look who runs the fashion industry. They claim it’s because they want models to be like hangers for their clothes. Yeah, okay. People are hangers. If you want hangers, use one of those clothes movers from a dry cleaning place. If you want to appeal to real women, use real women.
I am a size 8-10, depending on the brand. I am slender, but I am not skinny… Some may debate that, but trust me, I’m not. I swim a lot and am muscular with a nice padding of fat over the muscle. (I must stop eating those Oreo cookies! LOL) Finding jeans/shorts that will fit my hips and still nip in at the waist is near impossible. I hate hip huggers as my love handles hang over the edge. And I hate the fact that I can’t find a bra in my size. (Small boobs, broad back.) Did you know that if you are a size A, you can’t be larger than 36 around? And that, though you have very little boobs, you still need a back closing bra. I hate back closing bras. Sorry, I don’t need the support of back closing nor do I need underwires or padding. I don’t give a rat’s ass if they fill my tops out better. I’ve got small boob. It is what it is.
Marci
August 31st, 2009 at 9:32 pm
Oh, and, Faith, I apologize for the long rant. Obviously, this is one of my pet peeves too. LOL
August 31st, 2009 at 11:24 pm
My daughter stopped eating when she was eight, I soon found out a fat little B*tch was telling her she fat.
I wanted to take a piece of her, but instead I told my daughter to have a tummy contest with her and see who wins? And get really loud about it and get a crowd going. I wanted her to embarrass the hell out of the little brat so she would never do that again, and for my daughter to learn to stand up for herself.
Well it worked. Now my daughter is eighteen and don’t let anyone tell her she’s fat, and she eats what ever she wants. She wears a nine I think, but she’s taller than me, 5′6″ and carries it well and has a nice figure. She’s constantly asked out on dates but turns them all down.
Janice~
September 1st, 2009 at 4:05 pm
You know — you MUST know — that those dress sizes are practically meaningless. What actual measurements they represent varies from company to company, and has varied over the years. There really is no standard size. It’s a kind of mental game perpetuated by manufacturers. For a while, Liz Claiborne moved all their sizes UP — what was on average a 16-18 in other lines became a 12 in theirs.
Still, the cult of impossible body images goes on. Why? Because a majority of people buy the products advertised with them, see the movies that star them, read the magazines that sponsor them, diet and exercise and get surgery to make themselves into those impossible images.
Did you see last week’s Newsweek article about it?
http://www.newsweek.com/id/213646
and this one a few days later
http://www.newsweek.com/id/213807
Even in these comments, we use the term “fat” as an insult, a pejorative term of disgust and derision. We have to change, too. We can’t put ALL the blame on “the designers” or “the media”.
I’m a 260 lbs woman. I wear between a size 20 and a size 24, depending. I’ve been heavy all my life — I went on my first diet at age 9 and I’m in my 40s now. So, I’ve thought about this. Yes, there is prejudice and even brainwashing, but at some point we have to look at our own attitudes and made decisions about what we support, what we say, what we think.
September 1st, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I think that what size you wear might or might NOT be “fat” based on a lot of other factors. I’m 5′6 and have a very small bone structure. I’ve just outgrown my size 10 jeans and you know what? I’m too heavy. For my size and my structure, I look better and feel better when I weigh 15 lbs less. On me, a size 12 is fat. On someone who is 5′9, has a bigger bone structure and is my weight? A size 12 would look amazing!
My 12yo is getting concerned because she has a tummy. Physically, she’s still a little girl and her figure hasn’t started the change into that of a young woman with hips and boobs and a waist. I’m preaching healthy food choices and physical activity, and I’m also telling her that those changes will come. Until then, we’re just living the best way we can, which is to say, NOT dieting.
September 1st, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Sela and Sherri, thank you for stopping by and leaving your thoughts. And Sherri, thanks for those good links!
September 9th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Today’s sizes aren’t really the same size anyone on earth wore in the 1920/30/40/50/60s or anytime in history before that. Oh yes in those days 5′2″ and shorter was petite now 5′4″ is considered petite in some stores.
In 1970 when I was 20 years old, 5′3″ & half inches tall I weighed 130 pounds. I wore a size 11-12 in clothes. I was 34-24-36 measurements at the time. When I lost 5 pounds and went down to a size 9 in a dress, but with a flat stomach and 36 inch hips I still wore 11/12 pants.
Now Faith that doesn’t mean your panties are really bigger then they are, under-pant sizes haven’t changed as much as everything else.
smooch
October 16th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
This issue has always bugged me. I HATE the word, fat. I personally think it is offensive.
When my daughter was about 4, we were in a store, where there was a heavy man that I knew. We went over and said, “Hello.” and my daughter chimed in, “Your fat!”
I was mortified. There on the spot, I got on my knee, looked her in the eye, explained why that was not right to say, and made her apologize.
That was one of the first lessons she learned about treating others how you would want to be treated.
Moving on to the 3rd grade, a “friend” of hers was passing notes to the other kids in class. The note read, “She is so fat, she needs to marry Shamue.”
My daughter is now 16. She is not a stick thin girl that you see now a days. She has been active in basketball since 1st grade, played softball until the 6th grade, is on a travel basketball team, and runs cross country.
She has a health body but she doesn’t see it that way. She thinks she is fat, as she ways 156 lbs at 5′5″. I have tried to explain that muscle ways more than fat but all she sees is the number.
People are not beautiful because of the size they wear. It’s what their made of, that makes them beautiful.
Thanks,
Fallon H.
October 17th, 2009 at 1:16 am
Great topic, great comments!
Just a note: I am pretty sure underwear sizes are different from dress sizes. 6 is medium. 7 is large. So size 9 underwear would be a 2x, and would definitely be too big for someone who wears a 9/10 dress size.
October 17th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Thank you for the fantastic comments, everyone!