Thing is, what the fashion world calls 'plus size' is anything but. Marc Jacobs, the fashion designer who is doing a 'plus size' range is using a size 14 model. Size 14 is NOT overweight on an average height woman. Indeed size 14 works out at within the healthy weight range for the average height woman.
As someone who has battled with weight issues most of my adult life, to put it bluntly, it p*$$3s me off no-end that if you're overweight you're the new social pariahs, undoubtedly low on intelligence and lacking in self-control, etc. etc. I've had abuse shouted at me in the streets from total strangers just because I'm fat. I eat uber-healthily, I keep a food diary, I portion control everything, no added salt, skimmed milk only, very, very low-fat, no alcohol, no added sugar, no sugary drinks... and I am still obese. Unless I'm doing a mimimum of 200 miles a week on the bike and eating uber-healthily I put weight on. Consider that due to chronic knee injuries I'm off the bike long-term and right now, life for me is sh*t in the weight department. It is a constant battle and I cannot let my guard down at all. Even MrWC has remarked about how damned unfair it is that I have such a healthy lifestyle, do not eat cr@p and yet am significantly overweight.
And yes, fat people need clothes too. And why shouldn't I take some pride in my appearance just because I'm fat? I constantly battle to keep my weight under some semblance of control and it's damn difficult. Psychologically it's even more difficult when all there is on offer to wear in the shops is the equivalent of a paper bag over the head, blinds for the windows and locks for the doors so that no member of the public need be subjected to the horrific sight of you: a fat person, something less than worthy of human poltie contact.
Weight issues are complex - especially for women - as there are all sorts of *wrong* and *dangerous* messages sent out to us right from being kids to being older. There are health problems with being underweight, and underweight is the big message sent out in the media to females, espeecially young females. There's a lot of young women who are likely to have serious osteoporosis problems at increasingly early ages due to the fixation on dieting and retaining the figure of a child, even when an adult. It is NOT natural for a *woman* to look like a child with breasts.
As regards obesity, there's all sorts of complex issues around that., linked in to our societal rituals surrounding food, the industrialisation of food production and preparation, working lifestyles of women including long hours of employment, what goes into cheap food, and then there are medivcal issues to take into account too. Even Professor Robert Winston has acknowledged that medicine is only just beggining to scratch the surface of what is going on as regards obesity; that it is far more complex than calories in and calories out, but includes how the body deals with the calories in.
