14 DAY TRIAL // The media needs more diversity in terms of representations of the female body, one plus-size blogger, Corissa from Fat Girl Flow, is saying. The plus-size community needs to notice that they’re selling fat girls only one representation of plus-size, and start to be more inclusive.
In a post from the end of last month, which has gone viral now, titled “We Exist: Diversity in Plus-Size Bodies,” Corissa argues that fat women also need a space in the narrative of our times. Because they exist and they deserve as much love and respect as all the other ladies out there.
Fat girls exist and they demand to be noticed
You might have heard that the plus-size community has been pushing back at the fashion industry and its old ideals of beauty when it comes to the female body. In the past couple of years, more and more brands have started including larger sizes, and we’re actually witnessing plus-size models going mainstream and making as much money as a size 0 or size 2 girl.
The idea behind this “movement” is that skinny girls used in the fashion world and the media in general are representative of only a small segment of the population and, as such, regular women may find them completely unrelatable.
We need to see women of similar body sizes up on billboards and on catwalks, in perfume ads and lingerie commercials, it is being said. Whether we like it or not, the reality is that many of us, both male and female, are plus-size. If they’re not, chances of them being a size 0 or 2 are slim to none.
Corissa takes this one step further: even within the plus-size community, representation is minimal. The plus-size models now making waves have several things in common: they’re white, they’re proportional and they’re on the small side of fat.
With this in mind, she launched a challenge to her readers or any other woman feeling misrepresented: make your voice heard by sharing your bikini photo, show that you exist and that you deserve attention, love and respect.
Society should be more inclusive
Speaking with Bustle a few days ago, when her campaign started picking up speed online, Corissa said that society needed to be more inclusive. This would translate into more diverse body shapes in the media and the industry, which, in turn, would offer all fat women an actual sense of belonging.
“It’s for everyone,” she says. “Every body. And I think we need to make as much space as possible for as many different kinds of people as possible. […] Representation matters, not just for individuals, it matters for society as well. The more exposure to different bodies we can get into mainstream media, the more people will begin realizing that fat people are not invisible. You cannot look past us. You cannot ignore us. We are here, and we deserve love and respect.”
Critics may argue that the type of inclusion Corissa is gunning for is synonymous to a normalization of obesity, and that it would translate into plus-size men and women’s realization that they needn’t work to lose the extra weight at all, because they were OK as they were.
Corissa says that one’s weight should not be the factor that determines one’s worth. Fat “babes” are beautiful and they want to be allowed to feel that way, which is impossible if the media keeps telling them they’re wrong in being this fat.