For some reason in the advanced integrated society we live in stores feel the need to separate fat and skinny into their own side of a store. Not only is this a form of bodyshaming but it is also segregation. Apparently we still feel a need to put labels on people and force them into those groups never to intermingle, even after all we've gotten past as a society.
I do not understand why we have an entire new category to label people who are bigger than others, it is damaging and unnecessary. But what I really don't understand is why we have to separate them out of the "normal" clothes into a separate section of the store that is usually pushed back into a corner. And even dedicate a completely different store to them and advertise it as a place to feel comfortable. Aren't we better than this? Why can't a "plus-size" person feel comfortable around average people. And why are average people so uncomfortable around plus-size clothing.
It baffles me how long this has been going on and I have never heard a single person question it. Why do stores like Forever 21, H&M, and Maurices separate their plus size items from their "normal" size items in their stores and in some cases make completely different lines for plus sized girls. Why do stores like Lane Bryant and Torrid exist. Is it so that plus sized girls don't have to feel judged or so that they can have some type of clothing sanctuary, free from unlike sizes, like the "skinny" girls have Brandy Melville?
Why are we so afraid of people who aren't the same size as us? Why do we feel that they must hate us or have some alterior motive against us? It's time that we integrate our sizes in our stores and everywhere else. When did this war of fat people against skinny people start and why have we let it go on so long. We need to realize that we don't need to tear others down to feel good about ourselves. Let's stop throwing around phrases like "real men like curves" and "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" in an attempt to grip onto whatever shred of self esteem we have left. We have made it so far, so why are we stuck here? Why are we allowing this to happen?
It is not okay that I didn't feel comfortable in the same stores as my friends because I was much bustier than them. It was not that we weren't friends because our sizes were different, it was that the stores were alienating us as girls with much different worth. I always felt uncomfortable walking into Lane Bryant but I never felt uncomfortable once I was in the in the store, I felt that inside was freedom of clothes that zipped past the Mt. Everest that was my chest, but on the outside were all the people who knew I couldn't zip that dress from Target all the way up. The thing is, it's not the people that are the problem, in those stores I was made to feel uncomfortable because they decided not to make the dress in a size up. The problem is people who are perfectly healthy are made to feel like less because stores won't make clothing in a bigger size. If the do make bigger sizes they are banished to the other side of the store and made to feel less than the women on the other side. Why not hang the same exact shirt on the same rack with the smaller ones, and why not make the dress in a size up or heck even twelve sizes up. The only thing these stores are succeeding in is making women feel like they are less than what they are because a ordinary dress couldn't contain an extraordinary woman.
No matter how you felt when you couldn't get those pants past your hips, I promise you that your worth is never determined by what number is on a piece of fabric or how far a zipper happened to go. That dress that didn't fit may have been beautiful but you are infinitely more beautiful than it could ever be. Remember that the next time a store makes you feel like less it's not because you're not worth what the other girls are it's because that place has the inability to see your worth.
Maisie.
I do not understand why we have an entire new category to label people who are bigger than others, it is damaging and unnecessary. But what I really don't understand is why we have to separate them out of the "normal" clothes into a separate section of the store that is usually pushed back into a corner. And even dedicate a completely different store to them and advertise it as a place to feel comfortable. Aren't we better than this? Why can't a "plus-size" person feel comfortable around average people. And why are average people so uncomfortable around plus-size clothing.
It baffles me how long this has been going on and I have never heard a single person question it. Why do stores like Forever 21, H&M, and Maurices separate their plus size items from their "normal" size items in their stores and in some cases make completely different lines for plus sized girls. Why do stores like Lane Bryant and Torrid exist. Is it so that plus sized girls don't have to feel judged or so that they can have some type of clothing sanctuary, free from unlike sizes, like the "skinny" girls have Brandy Melville?
Why are we so afraid of people who aren't the same size as us? Why do we feel that they must hate us or have some alterior motive against us? It's time that we integrate our sizes in our stores and everywhere else. When did this war of fat people against skinny people start and why have we let it go on so long. We need to realize that we don't need to tear others down to feel good about ourselves. Let's stop throwing around phrases like "real men like curves" and "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" in an attempt to grip onto whatever shred of self esteem we have left. We have made it so far, so why are we stuck here? Why are we allowing this to happen?
It is not okay that I didn't feel comfortable in the same stores as my friends because I was much bustier than them. It was not that we weren't friends because our sizes were different, it was that the stores were alienating us as girls with much different worth. I always felt uncomfortable walking into Lane Bryant but I never felt uncomfortable once I was in the in the store, I felt that inside was freedom of clothes that zipped past the Mt. Everest that was my chest, but on the outside were all the people who knew I couldn't zip that dress from Target all the way up. The thing is, it's not the people that are the problem, in those stores I was made to feel uncomfortable because they decided not to make the dress in a size up. The problem is people who are perfectly healthy are made to feel like less because stores won't make clothing in a bigger size. If the do make bigger sizes they are banished to the other side of the store and made to feel less than the women on the other side. Why not hang the same exact shirt on the same rack with the smaller ones, and why not make the dress in a size up or heck even twelve sizes up. The only thing these stores are succeeding in is making women feel like they are less than what they are because a ordinary dress couldn't contain an extraordinary woman.
No matter how you felt when you couldn't get those pants past your hips, I promise you that your worth is never determined by what number is on a piece of fabric or how far a zipper happened to go. That dress that didn't fit may have been beautiful but you are infinitely more beautiful than it could ever be. Remember that the next time a store makes you feel like less it's not because you're not worth what the other girls are it's because that place has the inability to see your worth.
Maisie.