Just as Beautiful: Britain's first plus-size magazine
This is an interesting standpoint. Do “plus size” magazines, shows, websites, etc. do more to help body acceptance, or to hurt it. Is compartmentalizing people based on body-size beneficial, or should we look for a more inclusive approach? Or a blend? These are great issues, and I think Holesintheground makes some great points. I do think though, it’s nice to celebrate the beauty of being big, as often fat people are considered to only ever be ugly, but does this work against an idea of inclusion?
I hate this shit.
Creating a magazine purely for ‘plus size’ (hate the phrase too) women is just like saying that ‘plus size’ women have no place in ‘normal’ magazines.
It completely misses the point. The issue is that magazines as a whole don’t cater to women of all sizes. I can’t imagine that there are many women who will now be happy that they have a ‘plus size’ magazine to read, they want to be able to read the same magazines as everyone, but just to be included and represented within them.
It also promotes the annoying hate that different groups of women have for each other. As someone who is relatively slim (I’m a size 10-12) I really hate all this anti skinny nonsense. SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST SKINNY. All this ‘you’re not a real woman unless you have curves’. We’re not all blessed with buxom breasts and bountiful booties; we are all different shapes and sizes, and the sooner we learn to live with that, the happier we will all be.
Magazines need to change. This is not the right way to do it.
End rant.
Let’s get this out of the way first - the title of this magazine is pants. Absolute pants. Just as Beautiful?! I think way too much of myself to consider my body JUST as beautiful.
Now, onto the topic at hand. holesintheground definitely has a valid point when s/he says “The issue is that magazines as a whole don’t cater to women of all sizes.” Absolutely. But before inclusion can occur in magazines, we’d need a complete overhaul of the fashion industry.
An Australian magazine, Shop ‘til You Drop, put out an inclusive magazine earlier this year. Clothing was featured from a(n Australian) size 6 to a size 20something. It was a cool thing to do and it got some really positive feedback, but it didn’t change the fact that plus size fashion in Australia sucks. Shop ‘til You Drop did the best they could, but it still doesn’t feel very inclusive when all the beautiful fashionable items are available up to a size 12 or 14 and the things available in plus sizes are plain black tshirts and dowdy polyester.
Magazines are like fashion blogs; I’ll take inspiration from straight size bloggers, but when it comes to finding out what clothing is available in my size I go to the fatshion world. Before I found the online fatshion scene, I didn’t know about Evans or Asos or We Love Colors. Plus size fashion options are so limited that we have to share our resources and knowledge.
Just as Beautiful is like that. It recognises that plus size women have different fashion challenges. It’s not ideal for so many reasons, but until the fashion industry is inclusive I’m happy for it to exist.
