If there are two
magazines next to each other, one is a man with a six-pack on the cover and the
other has a man with beer belly on the cover, which would you buy? If a little girl is buying a Ken to her
Barbie will she pick the one without the six-pack abs?
When you Google the definition of
“plus size” you get the definition; (of clothing or
people) of a size larger than the normal range. This definition is generated
from the oxford dictionaries. Well first who decides what the “normal size
range” is to begin with? And second, why is “plus size” always associated only
with women? When you walk into a store like Forever 21 there is a “plus size”
section for females but not for males. Don’t get me wrong; we’ve made a
tremendous amount of progress in the modeling world. We went from only seeing
size 0-4 women on covers of magazines to seeing women of size 10 and above. We
see these women on Vogue, Maxim, Self, Sports Illustrated and many more.There
are even “plus size” Barbie’s. But there is one thing in common here; all of
the body activist movements have been for women. Males featured on the covers of magazines are
still men with six-packs. There are no
“plus size” male models. If you type in “plus size male models” in the Google
search engine and look at the images, you only see women. Why is that? Ashley Graham and Iskra Lawrence
are just two of the female body activist models that have greatly impacted society.
Iskra Lawrence is a model for Arie and has been on the cover of many magazines.
Ashley Graham was the first “plus size” model on the cover of Sports
Illustrated Swim Suits in 2016 and had the first “plus size” Barbie designed
after her. They’re both body activists whose Instragrams are filled with
pictures of themselves showing off their flaws reminding women that it's okay to
have them and to be happy in your own skin. These models along with many other body activists have helped females all over the world with body image. But women aren’t the only ones who
have insecurities. Men do too. I think
the reason the body activist movement for men hasn’t begun is because society
is still stuck with these stereotypes that men are supposed to be tough and
don’t share feelings while women are always worried about being judged, being
too emotional, and their body image. Which in my opinion is wrong. Men have
just as much insecurity as women and I hope the body activist movement
continues for women but also for men.
#everyBODYisbeautiful #BeautyBeyondSize
#everyBODYisbeautiful #BeautyBeyondSize
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=fat+ken&view=detailv2&&id=1C508AE5066AF0DA6DF15AB38E5E591D370CFD1C&selectedIndex=26&ccid=NdOcKDXS&simid=608011042231615990&thid=OIP.NdOcKDXS50OMHj9kLWfvzQEsDE&ajaxhist=0
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=ashley+graham+sports+illustrated&view=detailv2&&id=A0112F72D0BA3D36C6708269E2556BCB2B13D838&selectedIndex=1&ccid=WiBciJ9%2b&simid=608010634213068607&thid=OIP.WiBciJ9-SvfKPAjWy5LYggDZEs&ajaxhist=0
As someone who is defined as “plus sized,” or in my preference fluffy (Gabriel Iglesias 5 levels of fatness), I can say that 9 out of 10 girls will pick the guy with abs. Why do girls do this, I can only guess. It could be along the lines of a primitive instinct to go for the guy who is portrayed as reliable, or it could be related to what they are surrounded by growing up with things like toys and movies influencing young girls world-wide. In the popular entertainment, WWE, viewers of the show see superstars who are muscle bound and sporting 6-packs, shirtless, whereas the less attractive body type superstars wear shirts and singlets covering up their bodies. In addition to lack of advisement and equal treatment towards plus size males, females are treated similarly. A lot of guys are interested more towards girls who fit in the description of hot, sexy, great body, slim, etc. Compared to what I said in the beginning, with who the girls will pick, about 7 out of 10 guys will choose a girl who has the more appealing body type.
ReplyDeleteThere aren't nearly as many campaigns encouraging men to love their bodies as their are for women and that's a huge problem when talking about men not getting their "due" in society. One of the biggest movements that supports men and people in general of all sizes is the Body Issues of ESPN Magazine. In 2014 Prince Fielder a professional baseball posed naked for the cover (just like all of the other athletes do). It was considered one of the sexist ESPN covers of all time according to dead spin magazine. Just last December MEL magazine did a piece on Body positivity for men. Although it's not as common men do have the campaigns encouraging self love. Confidence is sexy and society doesn't highlight how sexy that is. There are plenty of celebrities running campaigns to help encourage body confidence in males, DJ Khaled is a very popular one these days with his elaborate snapchat stories of him shirtless in all his fluffy glory. Rick Ross a plus size rapper continues to take his shirt off during concerts allowing his fuff to shine brightly.The world is making great strides to encourage body positivity in men and women however we all could stand to see a little more encouragement for the guys.
ReplyDeletehttps://melmagazine.com/body-positivity-is-for-men-74425a06543b#.iwwjw979r
http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/prince-fielders-naked-espn-cover-is-sexy-as-hell-1603146649