Glamour has a spread out this month that’s grabbing headlines right and left. Well, that and eyeballs. I mean just take a look:
Isn’t that an amazingly beautiful picture?
But apparently Glamour thinks that all of the women in that photograph are “plus-sized” rather than “normal-sized.” (There are more pictures, along with short introductions to the women here.) I’m tired of the bullshit, dear readers. While Glamour magazine may live in a bizarre, alternate reality where women’s sizes 12 and 14 should be considered large rather than average, the rest of us live here in America on planet earth where, in fact, women’s sizes 12 and 14 are the average. To their credit, Glamour talks about this very thing in the article associated with the pictures. But the language they use continues to be disrespectful and missing the point.
So don’t get all high-and-mighty on me Glamour, for suddenly portraying your magazine as breaking the societal standards of beauty that have gripped American women for decades. This is a stunningly beautiful picture, and I love just looking at these amazing bodies. But when they amazing-ness of them is qualified – repeatedly – by the words plus, larger, and big, and when the women are described as having confidence “despite” their bodies, I throw-up a little bit in my mouth.
If this is really a conversation that Glamour wants to have, as it claims, here is my opening statement: This is not progress, this is continuing the bullshit while attempting to gain eyeballs and advertisers by claiming progress. Show me some real progress, and I’ll subscribe to your magazine. I’ll be your biggest fan and call your name from the rooftops. But first you have to get real, down here in the trenches, with all the normal people.
