Post by Erica Chan on Jun 4, 2010 6:32:49 GMT -5
French Glamour Features Plus-size Women!
Originally posted by Ximena Ramirez over at care2.com
Add French Glamour to the mix of international magazines embracing a wider definition of beauty. In its June issue the magazine features plus-size women – not models – discussing fashion. Finally a magazine that depicts real women!
The women featured are actually fashion bloggers – coined "fatshionistas" that explore plus-size fashion in the article, "Vive Les Fatshionistas!" Two of the women are U.S. "fatshionista" bloggers, one of who (Gabi) was listed as one of the top 50 influential bloggers by Times UK.
Earlier this year French Elle and Italian Vogue also included the "plus-size" perspective in their magazines, but French Glamour has done what none of these magazines has done before – featuring real life plus-size women.
This is something to truly be celebrated. "Plus-size" models may be "plus-size" by fashion industry standards, but more often than not do not represent real plus-size women. Giving these women a voice and face in a highly acclaimed magazine is a huge stepping stone in the road to altering the idea that thinness is equated with beauty.
Unfortunately, while we take two steps forward there always seems to be one step back. Unlike their French partners, American Glamour, the magazine that brought us Lizzi Miller and arguably the start of the "plus-size" magazine craze, didn't get it quite right this month.
The magazine's June "size acceptance" issue features "plus-size" model Crystal Renn on the cover in a swimsuit alongside Victoria's Secret angel Alessandra Ambrosio and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover girl Brooklyn Decker. Having a "plus-size" model on the cover of a magazine with other straight models is certainly a positive step, but not if you can't tell which model is the "plus-size" one. The magazine denies that any retouching was done to the image, but it seems pretty hard to believe to me.
What do you think? Who do you think featured the "plus-size" perspective better? French or American Glamour?
