Plus Size Controversy at H&M

Does this girl look "Plus Sized" to you?

No !?

Well she is. Because in the American garment industry, "Plus-Size" is anything size 14 and over. This does not mean that she is "Fat". This does not mean that she has a unhealthy lifestyle. It just means that she is 6 feet tall, beautifully built, and wears a size 14 at the particular store that is H&M.

Here's the article about everyone getting really mad about this categorization (click here)

These "Plus-Size" Size 14 jeans look great on her gorgeous legs!

No matter how a woman is built she does not want to be called "Plus-Size".
Do you know that size 14 is the average dress size of the American woman!? We just need to change this word.

I think "Plus" means "Obese" to almost everyone, but look at these women that are a size 14, you would never call them anything but perfect.

Here is Marquita M. Pring a size 14 "Plus-Size" Model.

Here is another size 14 model walking the runway.

It's just a semantics thing. Why don't we call that category **SPARKLE SIZE** or some other innocuous word.

The people that were most upset about the look of H&M's "Plus-Sized" model kept citing that the model was listed as wearing a size Medium shirt.
WELL THAT IS ANOTHER USELESS/MEANINGLESS WORD.

Is "Medium" ok because it's not a euphemism for "Heavy"? What if instead of "Small", "Medium" & "Large" we just called shirt sizes "1", "2", & "3".

Words are so powerful. I think we underestimate the power of them. Some words have a stigma attached that we can never separate from it, no matter what, because of our vanity, because of long ingrained social conditioning, whatever.

I went on MyBodyGallery.com which is a marvelous website. It's really helped me with some of my issues... Real women submit photos of themselves with their weight and measurements so you can see what a REAL SIZE 14 WOMAN LOOKS LIKE.

Here are three that I thought were good examples:

• http://www.mybodygallery.com/photos-36463-body-shape.htm?StartAt=9#.Ut7R_yj0Ay5
• 
  
• http://www.mybodygallery.com/photos-36464-body-shape.htm?StartAt=8#.Ut7SHSj0Ay5
• 
  
• http://www.mybodygallery.com/photos-39041-body-shape.htm?StartAt=6#.Ut7SMij0Ay5

Two of these Ladies are over 200 lbs, which I think is also a MAJOR shame trigger for women. And it should not be.

My favorite jeans are a size 12:

and I look like this under them:

It took me a long time to not feel bad in buying a "double digit" pant. But as Tim Gunn says, Fit is Everything, so I had to hang up that RIDICULOUS notion, and buy the pants that LOOKED BEST ON MY FRAME regardless of what the number on the label is.

Solutions:
1. I think ALL WOMEN'S CLOTHING should go on a measurements only scale like Men's clothes.

2. I think shirt sizes also should be changed to numbers as I stated before:

• 1 = x small
• 2 = small
• 3 = med
• 4 = large
• 5 = x large

because I have shirts that are in my closet right now that fit me the same way, and one is a "small" and one is an "x large".

3. American garment companies need to standardize sizing across the board. This I know would be the most impossible one, but I think it would actually be good for the clothing industry. I mean, just think of all the clothes you could buy if you ABSOLUTELY KNEW how something would fit no matter what store you go to! That would be awesome.

4. We as women need to be wayyyy more chill about these label-words. We are not defined by these words, nor the size of our bodies, we are defined by our nature and our personality.