Don't Tell Me What Size I Must B Q & A With Jodie Hunter
Q: You've started a Yahoo! club called "Don't Tell Me What Size I Must B." What motivated you to do this?
The size discrimination that occurs in fashion, which inevitably leads to the media, had been bothering me for years. I am a "tall, big boned gal" as k d lang puts it, and even at my slimmest weight of 62kgs at age 18, could not fit into sizes under 14. (That weight was "achieved" through strict dieting and intensive exercise.)
Over the years I have had tremendous difficulties finding fashion that fits, flatters and celebrates the plus size woman. Especially the YOUNG plus size woman, who is particularly vulnerable to poor self esteem because of a lack of choice.
Unfortunately, despite the passing years, nothing has changed. Seeing a young friend of mine go through the same self-hate, depression and mad dieting sprees just to try to fit under that size 16 line made me realise that if we didn't start taking action now, it would never ever change.
The straw that broke the camel's back was a national magazine competition for a copy of Jennifer Aniston's wedding dress - Australian size 8s and 10s need only apply. Not the first time I had seen such a competition, but it was certainly the last time that I ever wanted to see the word Winner associated with the concept that only The Slim could win.
The editor's response was dismal at best - apparently it was too much trouble to get a dress custom made!
So I decided to start a discussion/media monitoring group specifically on size discrimination in fashion & the media. I began recruiting on the message board of 2Roads http://www.2roads.com.au a plus size fashion company/magazine) and then onto Yahoo Clubs on August 17, 2000. It took off very quickly, much to my surprise!
Over 765 members worldwide, accruing at a rate of 50-100 each month.
EDITOR'S NOTE: That number is now over 1,000 members.
I try to keep the discussions focused on our fashion needs/wants, and issues in the media. We talk about issues that come up in our weekly magazines, how plus size women are portrayed. We discuss news articles and studies on subjects to do with dieting/obesity and attitudes towards us from society.
Its also very much a supportive environment for plus size women, with everyone having experienced discrimination of some kind.
Our fashion directory allows us to empower ourselves by guiding other plus size women to fashion companies who listen to our needs. So you'll often see a request for "straight leg boot pants" or something similar - we all pitch in trying to find it!
We have members from every continent except Antarctica in the club. Around 60% of our members are from the USA, 25% are from Australia (and very vocal at that!), and the rest from literally everywhere else. I would like to increase the representation from Europe/UK because the situation there for plus size women's fashion is terrible.
I'm taking this one step at a time. I see "Don't Tell Me What Size I Must B" as something that is very much in its infancy, with its potential a long way from being fully realised. Ask me when the membership hits 1000! EDITOR'S NOTE: That occurred during the first week of August 2001
My masochistic hobby is to go into shops that don't stock sizes above 14 and ask them why. Then I confront them with statistics on the plus size population and potential spending power. Sometimes this works, and I end up in long conversations with sympathetic shop managers. Other times, I get the blank look and shaking of heads in disbelief.
I think that size acceptance is an important ground-roots movement. For this to actually work, we all have to confront the size discrimination that we face at every opportunity. Don't keep your mouth closed. Don't accept the criticisms of "Why don't you just lose some weight and get over it?" Don't let people tell you that you'd be gorgeous if only you lost some weight.
We need to focus on self acceptance in the moment.
Right now. Not just accepting ourselves only when we lose weight. Having good fashions available to us that flatter our figures will help that process.
This is not just about being a BBW (Big Beautiful Woman) or SSBBW (Super-sized Big Beautiful Woman). Its also about women who are extra tall, who have big feet, who are plus sized petite, who are plus size and pregnant...its about the majority of women not being able to dress themselves the way they want to because a small minority of people have declared us as "unfashionable" and refuse to take plus size fashion seriously.
This is also about us lobbying for plus size women in leading roles in movies, television or advertising without being a joke or portrayed as being "ugly".
I believe that positive plus size role models can make a tremendous difference to the self esteem of many women, and for that to happen, we must get more women in the media.
That's what "Don't Tell Me What Size I Must B" is about.
An awareness group for people against size discrimination |
