Of Sports Illustrated and another plus-sized model

A couple days ago I wrote of a plus-sized model, the lovely Ashley Graham, appearing in an ad in the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated. While a small step for diversity of the human form, I felt a step was made.

Today, Sports Illustrated is again trending on my Facebook page. The headlines say the earlier headlines named the wrong model. That there is an honest to goodness plus-sized model featured in the magazine and her name is Robyn Lawley.

This is plus-sized model Robyn Lawley:

She stands 6'2" and wears a size 12.

Upon learning this, a few things became clear to me.

Lawley looks like the supermodels of the 80s and early 90s. Back before Calvin Klein and Kate Moss ushered in heroin chic and Axe Rose's cried over an emaciated Stephanie Seymour in the cold November rain. It was when Cindy Crawford made every red-blooded male wish they were a Coke can and Christie Brinkley was the uptown dream girl. It was also a time when I was young enough to view these women with worship. If only I could be thin like them; tall like them; grow breasts like them. As a teenager, they were the bar by which I measured myself and height was not the only category in which I came up short.

The fashion industry, the ones deeming Lawley a plus-sized model, does not know how sizes work. It's a problem that is easily remedied by one trip to the mall. The plus-sized racks are labelled "plus sized", the other racks are not labeled "plus sized". They could write down which sizes are which on a piece of paper and tape it to a wall in their studio for future reference. If they were feeling lazy, they could also use the Google machine on the interwebs and print it off. Wikipedia, an encyclopedia populated entirely by unpaid volunteers has sizes figured out, which makes me wonder why the ultra-monied Versaces and Chanels cannot.

The same fashion industry fails to understand basic proportions. As members of a species grow taller, they grow bigger all over. This is why Lawley and I both wear a size 12, but yet look markedly different in a bikini. At 5'6" I inhabit the upper range of the normal body-mass index (close enough). At 6'2" she's hanging comfortably at the bottom. To further illustrate the point, it is why I couldn't borrow my grandfather's Clydesdale harness to outfit my childhood pony even though they were both equines. If you want a someone who is a double-zero to model your clothes, look for women too short to go on all the rides at the amusement park and leave the amazons alone. I am sure amazons like to eat too.

Then there's the reasons why we should all care.

If the supermodels of my teenage years are now plus-sized models, think of what impact that has on today's teenage girls looking up to today's supermodels. It must be like aspiring to become a beautiful piece of string. In the age of pro-anorexia and thigh-gap websites, it shouldn't be surprising that 300,000 Canadians suffer from eating disorders. An estimated 10 to 20 per cent of individuals diagnosed with anorexia nervosa die prematurely as a direct result of the disorder or its complications, making it one of the most deadly mental disorders. Being a teenager sucks. It would be great if we could make it suck less by not actively promoting starvation and self loathing.

For the rest of us, as models have gotten thinner, we've gotten fatter. According to the health experts, the developed world is experiencing an obesity epidemic. So if a clearly delineated skeletal structure is supposed to serve as inspiration, it's not working. Ashley Graham looks lovely in a bikini and there are lots of women that look just as lovely in a bikini. I want them to wear that bikini. I want them to feel lovely. What I don't want is for them to look at the standard waif supermodel and throw on a cover up, because 99 per cent of us don't look like that.

This is Ashley Graham, actual plus-sized model.


Even the fashion industry that started this Skelator bandwagon should care, because if they had pride in their work, they should design clothing for the human bodies that will buy it. A regular-sized model sporting plus-sized clothing does not help plus-sized shoppers, because clothes hang differently on the two. They should also care about their overall revenues. If we're all getting fatter, their limited sizing means they best adapt with the times or concentrate on handbags and shoes.

Now I don't care about the fashion industry. If it went belly up tomorrow, I'd be the first one to raise a celebratory glass to its demise. I do care about how women feel about themselves. I especially care about how teenage girls feel about themselves. When it comes to body image, I want women and girls to feel comfortable in their own skin. I want them to like, if not love, their own bodies.

Life presents enough challenges without hating the body you were born with.