Everyone seems to be talking about Crystal Renn these days. The New York Times claims she’s “The Triumph of the Size 12s.” Jezebel says she’s not. And commenters think that having Crystal Renn in 8 page photoshoots is encouraging obesity. So here’s my take.
Photographers and Designers told Crystal Renn she was too fat, now they tell her she’s too skinny. I don’t understand why we feel the need to regulate Crystal Renn’s weight. If they’re looking for a different look, why not find a different person? People are constantly surprised that Crystal Renn doesn’t look fat, but why are we so surprised? According to the measurements I’ve found on the internet it would appear Renn’s BMI puts her in the “normal range” not “overweight” and no not “obese” and no not “morbidly obese,” and we already know BMI is kinda bullshit. So what’s with this freak-out-she’s-encouraging-obesity bullshit?
This to me speaks a lot to the way we think about fat. We tend to think in extremely polarized terms. A person is either fat and thus lazy, ugly, gross, insert-negative-adjective-here, or they are not fat, and thus not those things. This to me is pretty apparent in how clothes are organized. I’m an in-betweenie of sorts on the fat spectrum of clothing sizes. I can range anywhere from a 12 to a 16, depending on the make and cut and what part of my body we are fitting. What’s interesting of course is that the 12s are sold in “normal stores” and the 16s are sold in “plus size stores.” The clothes that are sold in a size 12 are still flattering, they’re “in,” but the second you get into the 16s you go to ponchos and moo-moos and weird drape-y things in horrible giant prints. I don’t really understand why designers seem to give up the second you get above a 14. Folks just need an inch here or there, and excuse me for being so blunt by why the hell is 14 the size in between “normal clothes” and “plus size clothes” when that is the size the average American woman wears? 14 should be the size we design all clothes around and should be the samples runway models wear–not supposed “plus size models.”
Another thing I’m sort of disturbed by is this whole sexualization and fetishization over the white skin of some “plus sized” models like in Renn’s 8 page spread in Glamour, “You’d Look Even Better Naked” or in the recent “plus size issue” of V magazine. I don’t claim to know why plus size models always have to have white skin and lose their clothes for their photoshoots, but it’s making me wonder. Jezebel tries to put a finger on it in their “So, Why Are Plus-Size Models So Often Naked, Anyway?”
…This is as good a time as any to address the fact that a large number of plus-size shoots feature nudity. Of course, so do many fashion shoots with straight-size models: but because as a culture we associate larger women’s bodies with different meanings than smaller women’s bodies, photographing a plus-size model naked can have very different connotations. Eroticizing a plus-size model is a pretty easy, and in some ways predictable, choice. Do the images rely on the old trope of the voluptuous woman as sexually salacious? Is it just that the stylist couldn’t (or couldn’t be bothered) to pull clothes in the right sizes?
Personally, I’m guessing there are probably many reasons for this focus on naked white plus size models. One is that I don’t think there are enough awesome clothes made and sold for women of a certain size for which the models can model which I’ve already addressed. And secondly, I think when we add the fact that these women are larger than most models, I think photographers don’t know what to do. We’ve already polarized folks into fat and not fat, good and not good. So inorder to demonstrate that “hey she’s not all those bad things we associate with fat”, they rely more heavily on her female-ness, and her white-ness. Instead of showing actual diverse images of beauty, we just amp up old ideas of about Snow White being the fairest lady of them all who spends her life waiting for strange men in the woods.
If you’re looking for actual diversity in fashion, check out the fatshionista community which describes itself as ” a diverse fat-positive, anti-racist, disabled-friendly, multi-gendered, queer-flavored, politically-engaged community, open to everyone” They’re pretty rad and frankly more useful than any fashion mag I’ve ever seen since it’s real clothes worn by real folks.
Gender Agenda 
I’ve always been a fan of fuller-figured models. There’s a great site with many images of Crystal and other plus-size models here:
http://www.judgmentofparis.com/
They’re all gorgeous.
The site’s forum also has thought-provoking discussions about body image and the media.
great post munzi. i hesitate to embrace the consumerism advocated in any fashion magazine, including fatshionista, but i agree that fatshionista also ends up performing a useful service to marginalized individuals.
I’m sorry, there are many things I take issue with on this issue- and I’m a fat girl. As a woman who’s struggled with her weight all her life (and is currently losing weight again) so many “fat empowerment” people fail to see reality. Are Crystal Renn and Emme beautiful? Yes they are- their faces are extremely attractive. Are they rich? Extremely. Are they married? Yes (and Emme has kids). Crystal Renn (like all women) yo-yos, she goes from 165 lbs. to 200+ and she’s admitted that herself. Right now she’s at 177 lbs. That is size 12, and the size (at 5’9″) I aspire to be. BUT are the photos Crystal and Emme have been in retouched? The answer is yes. If you’ve seen them, that can’t be denied. Are they paid millions to stay fat? The answer is yes- but they are the minority and the selling point to the fat female demographic. Unfortunately the clothes they hawk happen to be ugly and I wouldn’t be caught dead in them. They are also overpriced, and that is another drawback. Another thing is the men they married (who are averaged sized) and somewhat attractive married them because they are rich and MAY have a fat fetish. But in white corporate America that is unacceptable, and in MOST cases unrealistic. I know the men that have approached me are uneducated, abusive, unattractive, poor, violent, religious zealots, have social and emotional problems. They see a fat white woman and think she’s desperate for attention and think they could put their hands on me to stop me when I walk away. I now carry a concealed knife. This is the reality of being a fat woman in America. There’s not more to love, just more to worry about.
Hey,
I feel you on some of these issues you bring up, I agree that the reality of being a fat woman in America can mean more to worry ’bout. And I agree it’s hard to find a partner who likes you for who you are but at the same time isn’t interested in Fetish stuffs (which personally creeps me out, but I’m trying not to judge what others are attracted to).
But I disagree that folks who are interested in what you call “Fat empowerment” fail to see reality. Fat Acceptance groups are completely focused on reality, in fact their point is to be rooted in the present and not dreaming of the fantasy of being thin. And my point in this post wasn’t to say look how great crystal renn is-my point here is to say that of course she looks great to us–she’s not even fat and we’re relying on other tropes about beauty like skin and overly sexualized outfits.
If you’re looking to understand what I mean about Fat Acceptance being rooted in reality I’d recommend reading Shapely Prose or anything by Kate Harding. She helped me to realize some really crucial stuffs:
1)It’s really hard/unfair to be Fat in America. And that problems experienced by folks who are fat are problems with our society not with that person who is fat
2) It’s essentially impossible to keep off weight which is lost for more than 5 years. That everyone wants to lose weight, but our bodies are designed so that we keep weight on. So even if I want to lose weight because of supposed health reasons or because I want to experience thin privilege I probably won’t be able to no matter how much I hate/shame myself. And that by the end of whatever diet I go on, I’ll probably have actually gained weight and worse than that I’ll be less healthy because yo-yo diets are uber hard on your body, way more than being “obese” or whatever.
3) notions of beauty are socially constructed–meaning that being “thin” is not innately more beautiful than being “obese” it’s simply how it is in our current culture. Which is sucky since it’s hard to change culture, but it’s not impossible.
4) being thin doesn’t solve every problem. Men/People in general are still abusive assholes. Clothes never fit right. Most women regardless of weight think they’re ugly/fat. Inequality is constant and disgusting and unfortunately won’t go away just because a person is thin. We are never completely in control over our lives no matter what our size. But we can try to control what we can, regardless of weight. We can take self-defense, we can read theory, we can make friends who care, protect, and love, we can be open of our genuine appreciation of bodies which are not valued in society, and we can remain proud despite everyone who fucking sucks.
5) our ides of what is normal is so skewed. my point in this article was to point out that crystal renn is normal sized not plus-sized, not fat–NORMAL. and it says something really messed up about us if we’re only barely tolerating these images.