For years companies have marketed to the plus size demographic using not so plus models in their campaigns. Some say the lack of credible plus size models are the issue. Others say that when research was done, plus size women reacted negatively to seeing plus size women in ads that cater to them. I have often wondered who they polled and to what extent did they do their research.
I was doing some research for an upcoming speaking engagement and was shocked to find so many contradictions in the literary world. Here are a few that I found :
Take Me by Bella Andre. The description reads “..Lily Ellis has curves — soft, beautiful curves. The kind of voluptuous body she fears Travis Carson, the man she’s always loved from afar, would never crave. But Lily is about to be proven wrong.” Lily’s beautiful curves are no where to be found on the cover.
A Kindle book entitled, Sexy Tales of Plus Size Lingerie “…encourages and inspires plus size women to embrace their voluptuous body, and show it off proudly using sexy lingerie.” I wonder why they couldn’t find a plus size woman who embraced her curves for the cover still?
The heroin in Plus by Veronica Chambers is described as “.. our lovable Cinderella, who just got dumped by her very first boyfriend and put on twenty-five pounds. But then she’s discovered as a plus model. In the eyes of pop culture, Bee is Jessica Alba and then some!…” By the slender legs on the cover you would assume that she is Jessica Alba, nothing more.
What we are more used to is the images used to sell plus size clothing. For example, Roamans.com specializes in clothing sizes 14w to 34w. I don’t think this beautiful lady is close to a size 14 at all!
The Roamans ad represents the direct marketing of the past. More and more companies are choosing plus size women to feature in their ads, a real representation of what they carry. I found the literary images more shocking than the Roamans picture. When I write, it is a personal statement of who I am. To have a blarring contradiction from the content of the book be the FIRST thing you see when you pick it up makes me skeptical of the content from the door. I wonder what the conversation was between the author and the publisher in chosing the cover art. I also wonder how many authors fought with the publisher to have the cover reflect the content and for that choice, remain unpublished.
Features Editor, Cassandra Jones-McBryde -- Daily Venus Diva.
Yes, some Plus size woman pick size 2 models over size 18; but can you blame the? That is all they have seen in their 20+ years. How many TV shows have they watched? How many magazines have they read? How many ads have they see? How can one ad of a plus size model compete? We have been brain washed plain and simple.
Most of the woman in the US are size 14 and up. Yet books, magazines and TV say we should be size 10 or less. How do we change this? We have to overcome our own training and fight to be heard and seen.
I totally agree! If you are going to market to plus size women then appeal to THEM! To US!
I want to know how a garment will look on ME, not the size 4-10, they show it on!
I would have to agree – if you are going to make plus size women feel good about themselves, its so important to use images of gorgeous full figured women when advertising plus size lingerie.
Great points Cassandra! I totally agree with you and Michelle & Tammy here. I want to see what it looks like on ME! Truth be told it was seeing an AD of a true plus sized woman at an Ashley Stewart that even made me think plus modeling was even possible. Before then, I hardly ever saw full figured women modeling plus sized clothes. We need to see a wider range too, because plus sized women come in all shapes and sizes. The girl above it NOT plus sized at all. As a matter of fact she looks smaller than my 16 yr old daughter who is a size medium.
I find it hard to buy clothes online because I never can see how it will look on a body like mine. Great article!
Amen Amen!!! To all of you this topic really boils my blood . I have seen this so often in , books tv movis and mostly in fashion. What do they think we are stupid!! How dare they say we sell to 14 and up and never ever have model to represent t1 and up. If you want me to spend my money I want to see a model who looks like me, not a size 8 but me, since you say you carter to plus size. I get tired of magzines and tv shows saying we have the first plus size model on are cover and you see thecover and the model is not plus size.( Italian vogue ) We have to take a stand for this I find this a insult to plus size women everywhere, and we must take a stand against this,