In a recent article on the Huffington Post, Author Starre Vartan recently objected to referring to Plus size women as “real” and I completely agree with her. Here is a snippet of the article.
Over the last few years I’ve noticed the word “real” to describe average or larger-sized women has become commonplace, but if one thinks about it for five seconds, it has to be concluded that if we are calling rounder women ‘real’ that makes her size 4 sister fake. I checked in with my slighter friends on this one, and they admit to feeling pushed out of the conversation about bodies just because they are more svelte and – true to form for most kind-minded women, they feel badly about making a fuss, since body image and labels always seem to launch a firestorm or controversy.
This ‘real woman’ label has been used by those who don’t know much about language or feminism, like the PR team behind Dove Soaps’ much-applauded and much-insulted “Campaign for Real Beauty” which featured women sizes 8-14. A Craigslist call for ‘real women’ in NYC is casting now for what is expected to be a reprise of those ads. The term is also being used by those who should know better, including the lovely, fantastic feminist blogger Shelby Knox who recently wrote on Jezebel “I’d decided that I liked the young women I speak to on campuses seeing a real-looking woman speaking her truth…”
So what’s the verdict. What word should be used when referring to Plus size women?
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I really think that use “real” women creates an “us” vs “them” culture, when what we are striving for as plus size women (I think) is for EVERYONE to be accepted. Fat, skinny, whatever – but all together with the same options, same respect.
- Sarah @ Return to Sender
How about just “women”? Perhaps if the labeling and categorizing left the conversation and the definition of woman didn’t require either a dress size or a chromosome check, we’d get a little further in changing our thinking, too.
I understand the reasoning behind labeling various groups of people for purposes of discussion, but it seems so often a particular label replaces the people, shoving individuals into a conveniently non-human blob. When labels are required, I think I prefer them to be cumbersome and detailed so that we aren’t tempted to short-hand our way through the conversation.
Also, I agree. While, as a women who wears larger sizes and does not conform to societal body ideals, I appreciate being (at last) labeled as ‘real woman’ (because for so long, it did indeed seem I was considered warm blooded furniture or something) I’d rather see that as a mark of inclusion in the total group of real women (as opposed to inflatable dolls, mannequins, and those who prefer to impersonate females but do not think themselves to be women). I see nothing served in pushing any woman out of the “real” group as long as she does think of herself as a she, and she breathes.
No. Everyone is a real size. Its silly to say that.
I hate the phrase “real” women because yes it is a bit of a back handed slight to my slimmer friends. I honestly don’t have a problem with plus sized or curvy or even full figured. I understand it was coined to be something positive but I don’t need an ego boost at the expense of others.
Wish there was a better term – I agree that “Real” seems to imply that women who are naturally smaller / thinner / skinnier are “not real”. That simply isn’t true. Having been a size 24 and now a size 12, I think I’m still considered “plus size” by the majority of the fashion industry – that said, I still am, and will continue to be, “Real” for the rest of my natural life. My size 6 / 8 / 10 friends are just as ‘Real’ as I am…no doubt!
I never thought about that before, but I think no one should even be labeled as the real beauty, because everyone is beautiful! Yea yea, society likes skinny women and the plus size women like themselves, and want to be the skinny women (some do, that is). No one can be called the real women or the real beauty, it’s too diverse.
I was on the “real women” band wagon for a while when it was first used but when I finally gave it some thought I realized it really wasn’t what I wanted. All women are real women and I want all women to be represented on some level. I think there is a new wave of “real women” activists out there right now and what they are referring to are women who haven’t been photo-shopped/touched up so much that they are unrecognizable.
Real is very exclusionary. No woman is any less real because they are smaller. I am not a real woman, just a woman.
If you’re talking about women size 8-16 I’d go with “average women” or something along those lines, to differentiate from “thin” women and “plus sized” women.