Beauty?

After playing “Where’s Waldo?” to find the model's rib cage in the new Ann Taylor ad , I really started to think “Wow, we’ve really learned nothing about beauty.” For some reason, I was under the impression that we were moving ahead with innovative campaigns such as the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, and magazines such as Seventeen looking for “real girl” models. But as it turns out,  we still as a society (at least in the media) equate beauty to being thin.

If you haven't seen them yet, on several ads throughout the city, the new Pretzel Crisps ads portray the words, "You can never be too thin." Though it depicts a stack of thin pretzels on top of each other, creators of this marketing campaign could not have been that naive to think that viewers of the ad and consumers would not see a message pertaining to body image.

In an effort to appease those of bigger proportions, New York magazine's The Cut blog suggests that Marc Jacobs may consider a clothing line for 'above average' sizes. Though I actually am of petite stature, I loved the idea that Marc Jacobs was first off, against the term "plus-sizes," and that he was considering catering to the needs of those who do not fit into "women's size" or less. After posting the announcement on New York magazine's Facebook, I was shocked by the amount of backlash against this idea. Comments such as, 

How about "clothes for normal-sized women, not anorexic toothpicks?"

 How long has Marc Jacobs been making clothes? How long have there been 'plus size' women? This seems markedly disingenuous. 

Okay, I understand why many would take offense to Ann Taylor or Pretzel Crisps and the like, but I believe that if Marc Jacobs put together a line of clothing for the 'above average,' I believe that it would be completely genuine because his business partner said himself that he's a big guy (210 lbs). Also, the new line that's in talks is said to be sizes 18 or greater (since Marc Jacobs already carries up to size 16), so I wouldn't say they cater to "anorexic toothpick."