Positive vs. Negative

Positive vs. Negative



I haven't had much to say on this blog lately.  Most articles I'm reading these days that concern plus size women are not in a positive light.  I recently read an article by Margaret Bogenrief, and in it she was pointing out (nothing new really) how plus size women are as usual not catered to in the fashion world.  She mention a few retailers such as Lane Bryant who still do but shouldn't we have more options then the regular few.

Ok, the positive: Yes there are a lot of up and coming designers, boutiques, fashion shows, model opportunities, and fashion weeks.  So I guess I should (as a plus size woman) should be grateful.  But am I? Are you?

New Dove Campaign- My picture was on a billboard!

So, I'm friends with a lot of beautiful, smart, sexy, sassy, wonderful phatabulous ladies on Face Book, right, and all of a sudden I see a bunch of these Time-Square Billboard Ads for Dove soap and bath products with a lot of my FB friends pictures on them.  Now, at first I was like wow, a plus size woman on a billboard in Times-Square that's something to blog and brag about, but then I see more and more, so I immediately become curious.  Which basically means I googled it.  Turns out Dove is doing something very good for women all around the world.  They've purchased a billboard in Times Square that's basically a slide show, and all you have to do to be on it is go to their website dove.us and sign up and submit a pic.  I did this and the very next day: BOOM there goes my picture.  I screamed!

 I immediately started inboxing, calling, telling everyone  I think may be interested, you know all of the women I see posting beautiful cell phone pics (lol).  I say to them, this is your chance to actually get those bathroom pics (we've all done it) out their and you never know.  But to my surprise I get very little response back and the response I do get is so shocking to me.  "I don't think I wanna do that", and every excuse in the book, and I'm like, "are you serious""?

I don't get it, I just don't get it.  People talk a lot of talk, but when it's time to show up, their scared. 

Okay, so I'm done with my little rant.  Back to the fact that for maybe about 3-5 seconds my picture was on a billboard in Times-Square.  I am soooooo excited.  Yea me!

Thanks Dove for taking the time out to recognize natural beauty and for giving all of the women like me who would love to model or do something like that but just don't quite fit the bill.  Thank you for saying we are still beautiful anyway and actually doing something about it.

So, I ran across this video on you tube.  In it the announcer talks about a study that "proves" plus size models or "thicker women" cause low self-esteem among women.  This "study" doesn't bother me mainly because there are a lot of studies out here that can "prove" just about anything.  Everyone is different with different opinions, cultures, growing up in different communities and families that shape us.  So just because one college has come up with this study does not mean its true.

The problem I have with this video is the fact that the announcer stated that when models who are skinny are seen they are seen as skinny models and when models who are plus sized are viewed they are viewed as plus size models.  I have to disagree.  When I hear someone talk about "models" they are usually referring to models who are skinny.  When someone refers to a plus size model they usually say, "plus size model".

My question is why?

The plus size woman is doing the same thing the skinny woman is doing.  She's modeling a specific product for a specific company.  Why does she need a label about her size?

This doesn't really bother me when it happens, but I have noticed that it happens.  What bothered me about the video is that the announcer doesn't know what she's talking about.  I watched a few of their videos on the subject and I can honestly say that neither one of them have a complete understanding of the plus size community. 

Just my thoughts:)