A segment on Entertainment Tonight Canada the other day talked about a Canadian model (her name escapes me...if anyone saw that show, please let me know) who gained weight and decided to keep it (she'd rather be at a more healthy weight, which ET Canada reported as 140 lb for her 5'10" frame....very slim, but a healthy weight for her height) rather than go down to her 120 lb "model weight." According to the report, she now does some work for a (Canadian) designer who uses models of "all shapes and sizes." However, the girls that ET Canada showed all looked like they were "plus" and probably on the taller side. I thought "all shapes and sizes" meant just that. Short, tall, skinny, not-so-skinny...at least the "Four Basic Shapes" I outlined in an entry last month. But shows like ET (all versions, whether Canadian, American or whatever) seem to want to focus only on plus. This doesn't make it all that diverse, does it? It's like saying that an organization is "multicultural" when all the visible minorities are of one ethnicity. In terms of size, it's like saying "hey petite woman, you don't really matter, when it comes to beauty/fashion (even though there are many celebs who are actually petite.).
This designer doesn't look like she designs for "all shapes and sizes" if it turns out that none of the clothes properly fit petite women, regardless of whether she's thin or plus. She only designs for some shapes and sizes, or "standard" and "plus." But at the same time, I'm not surprised. The American version of Entertainment Tonight seems to have an OBSESSION with plus sizes. Whenever they talk about body image/body size topics, it's plus, plus, plus. And usually they interview Mo'Nique (or whatever her name is). I realize that plenty of people are overweight in this part of the world, but talking only about plus sizes (and not discussing a plus sized person's height...no one ever talks about how a 5'2" woman who is size 16 probably looks very different from a 5'10 woman of the same dress size) isn't making things any better. Of course, as usual, the media will not listen to my rants (I actually left a message with Global Television re: the ET Canada thing...doubt I'd ever get a call back!)
