Caught off guard? Slightly amused? I know I was when I heard one of the women from the show "Big Sexy" say this about having "a good time" with a plus sized woman. To get an idea of what goes on in the show, watch the clip titled "Thunder Thighs Contest" by clicking the attached link. (Warning: this is not for the weak of stomach) If you want to see more of these "big sexy" women the show airs Tuesday nights on TLC. The time sometimes changes so check your local listings to make sure you don't miss a second!
Thunder Thighs Contest
Most of the women on the show are plus sized models. On the last episode I watched, one of the women came close to losing her contract because she had gained a few inches around her waist. One very interesting point the show brought up was that plus size models still have to be within a weight bracket. This bracket is a lot higher and more lenient than the weight for a high fashion model, but the restrictions are still there.
The featured women are somewhat successful in the fashion industry due to the rise of plus size and "full-figured" stores. Terms such as "curvy" and "thick" and being used in all the wrong places and obese women are self-proclaimed "real women".
Plus size modeling is mostly catalog work consisting of catalog books for various clothing stores and advertisements in magazines. Most high fashion gigs for runway shows carry only the smallest size (usually zero). There is much debate about this as many people think it is the root of a lot of the negative pressure many models feel they are under. Many designers will say that small sizes are made because they use less fabric. For expensive designs using as little as possible is the most cost effective thing to do.
The root of my frustration comes not from plus sized models nor the rail thin runway models, but from the fact that there is a gray area of modeling that I, unfortunately, fall into.
Gray area you say? Yes. My BMI, or body mass index, is of the seemingly boring "normal" range. In terms of unimportant things such as my health or longevity this is great. However, in the modeling industry it is undesirable.
This is the dilemma of many people I know trying to get into the modeling industry. We are too big to fit the 0-2 size range for a high fashion/runway model, but we are too small to fit the 10+ size range for a plus sized model.
What to do, what to do....
Forget about that thing called food and try to drop down to the underweight range in the BMI scale...?
Or
Forget about everything else but food and gorge myself until I'm tipping the unhealthy, obese range...?
This chart depicts my current options:
What a great subject! Yes, I completely agree, more "grey scale women" should be models. Some of the most gorgeous women I have ever met were neither waif or blob.
ReplyDeleteAs for the fashion industry in general, can you imagine if people actually thought they looked alright as is? The industry would be crushed!
I like that you put the link at the top for reference, and also link at the end to the BMi Calc. Although it's always better to add a hyperlink than to tell a reader to "google" something.
Awesome article
Questions:
ReplyDeleteWhere and when is the program? TV I assume... And cable or broadcast?
BMI - does the writer mean Body Mass Index? If so, it needs to be said, then the acronym used later...
The writer obviously has done some serious thinking about this and the content - though it needs more specifics - is generally there.
What would make it stronger, perhaps, is for the writer to step up earlier in the column, so that readers realize it is about her, too, and not a generic piece about the female anatomy.
I didn't have the courage to check out the thunder thighs segment yet...
Good topic though and I think the specialization is going to work - whatever size it comes in.