This Is A Plus Size Model?

Calvin Klein’s New ‘Plus-Size’ Model Is a Size 10



And this is a great illustration of what is wrong with the fashion industry.

/avoids going on a rant

Society's view of "thin" and "beauty" is most certainly off. Call my view skewed (being a Southerner) but I have and always will prefer my ladies with some meat on their bones.

This new "plus sized model" of theirs probably doesn't even have two scoops of booty meat when compared to the actual non-crazy norm (or girls from my neck of the woods). And she will likely lead to a new crop of girls killing themselves over thigh gap and unrealistic goals regarding their physical shape that will harm their well being.

should we pay more attention to the artistic style and utility of clothes from designers from the fashion industry or the looks of the models?

As much as people like you and me that think logically would like for it to be about that, the sad reality is that this kind of thing DOES and likely always will have an impact (a big one at that) on girls' way of thinking.

She's obviously not "plus sized" but she is definitely much more full than the usual underwear model group. I don't see why we need "plus sized" models or why we need PR friendly terms like it. If you really want big is beautiful or weight not to be a big deal, why still have a specific term for fat girls? Moreover, why even have size 4 or below, let twigs shop in the juniors section and start the sizes over at 0, so every woman instantly loses 4-6 sizes and gets the same placebo confidence boost as calling it "plus sized"?

It just seems like a bunch of men and skinny girls trying to find a way to call women fat to their face and then still sell them ***.

What is everyone's idea of fat though, bet it isn't the same as the fashion industries idea of fat.

Word, son. I agree and add that its a product of the "need" for political correctness. Personally, I think the overabundance of political correctness is choking society and creating a generation of freaking pansies with super thin skin.

Exactly. My view of fat is alot different from alot of folks. To quote a great sage, "I like big butts, and I can not lie". I'm sure my idea of what a "fat girl" looks like is much different than alot of these fashionhound ***.

general rule of thumb; when your stomach sticks out further then your ***.

... and the same analogy applies to men with a different part for that matter...

Eh, if you want to use more pallettable words for fat, I think you're skirting the issue. Sure, not every woman is going to be a perfect size 6, but the more important question is if she is happy with herself image regardless of outside influence. I know plenty of larger women who don't have a complex simply because some skinny girl posted a picture of facebook or because there's a twig on the cover of a fashion magazine.

You don't find "x" figure attractive? Good news, there's plenty of women that are the shape you prefer, move along.

I think this one is sexier than those skinned skeletons that usually get thrown up on underwear ads. Shes not a plus sized woman by no means, but much more pleasant to looks at that than what Calvin Klein usually throws in magazines.

"Plus Size" doesn't always refer to a woman's waistline, it refers to someone larger than the norm, which can, and often does, mean height. According to Calvin Klein this particular model is 5'11'', and according to wikipedia(albeit not the most accurate, but close enough) the average female height in the US is 5'4''. So by height standards, it would be natural for them to deem her "Plus Sized". Often times people just misinterpret these types of labeling.

Gisele Bundchen is 5'11". Would she be considered plus sized? I'd say the plus size they're sayin she is is that she's a size 10, not a 4 or 6 like the usual models.

They're clearly referring to the fact that she's a size 10, most models are 5'10"+ and size 0-2. She's a model, and the only thing that makes her "plus sized" in comparison to other underwear models is her weight. I don't think there's any misinterpretation, just pointless use of a word that has no reason to exist.

They are calling the campaign the "Perfectly Fit" Campaign, and that she's not plus sized or skinny, but in the middle. I don't think the point was to say this is what plus size models look like.

Problem: what the hell is fat?

I was talking to a friend the other day. He was launching into a rant about how he used to just ignore "obese" people but was reaching the point of being angry with them for effectively throwing their lives away. I pointed out that I am obese, being 5'7" and 215 lbs. He immediately dismissed this as nonsense, largely because he was using a more colloquial term (rather than the medical one) and meant the morbidly obese, that is, people shaped like beachballs. "Obese" in most people's minds doesn't designate someone who bikes 41 miles on a workday just because he can.

So while a woman with simple curves, like the model in the OP, is in no wise deserving of any disparaging remarks from sane people, someone who can imitate being an authority figure has deemed she is larger than usual. Though, proceeding logically from that point, Meghan Trainor must be a beached whale (am I the only one who thinks she exaggerated her size for the video, though? clothing can make you look fat as well as thin), yet I am certain quite a lot of people would enjoy seeing her model sexy underwear.

Personally, while I'd never call myself a chubby chaser (and let's not even get into how the word "chubby" has been misappropriated to mean "needs truck scales to determine weight"), I've never understood the appeal of skeletal women and have a distinct cut-off point with regards to slender men. It's pretty much the same for both sexes, actually: I should not be able to see ribs when you're standing at rest.

= this whole thread

They can market it as whatever they like. Doesn't make it true, but if it's successful, good for them. If it fails, oh well on them

While I understand the concept of subjectivity, I don't think it's hard to figure out what I mean by "fat". I figured I'd gone a bit overboard with air quotes and didn't need to in that case. Just so we're clear, I'm not talking about fat in terms of "I can see a crease where her butt meets her thighs". Not even just "unshapely" as every person has a different architecture and aren't necessarily a certain shape because they overeat or are inactive. We're just bombarded with politically correct terms for natural variability, and terms like "plus sized" or "full bodied" should be just as insulting for a woman as being called fat or unshapely.

If you google her name, it does look like she could drop 10 pounds.

There's nothing wrong with wanting a girl with 'meat on her bones'. It just so happens that far too often, people think 'meat' and 'fat' are interchangeable.

Problems also arise when the fat shame culture goes too far and shames women for wanting to be thin. Issues like this draws in political correctness like crazy.

Does anyone actually know her weight? for a 5'11 girl, she should be around 130 to be skinny.

This guy is right.

Size 10?! Lose some weight, fatty!

Just so I'm clear on this, does this mean that if a woman prefers to be known as "curvy" (or a man as "stocky"), do we treat that as an insult because it provides a descriptor?

Also, let's look at the converse: although I've met some people who use the word "skinny" in a positive manner, my cultural grounding suggests that it's a largely negative descriptor when compared to "slim" or "slender."

Anyhow, your point is taken, sorry if I caught the wrong end of it earlier. Fashion is a stupid industry. They literally want women and, to a lesser extent, men to portray clothing with the same lack of presence as a wire hanger. In high fashion, the sort of idiot nonsense that no one except Lady Gaga and Björk would wear in public, I guess I can ignore that, but when someone is trying to sell me underwear, I'd prefer to actually be attracted to the body underneath since, y'know, that's the whole point of advertising. Last I checked, Americans are obsessed with ***, which skeletal women emphatically lack outside the influence of silicone.

--In an effort to introduce a lighter and cheesier side to this conversation, KMC adds this--


That reminds me... I need to get the wife this year's edition of the "Motorboat to English" dictionary in anticipation of our annual mistletoe hunting spree.

Kraft Macaroni and Cheese?

I think any label you apply to yourself is your perogative, but terms like that are often used to escape a negative self-image. Someone who is "curvy" or "stocky" because of things like ethnicity or genetics (larger hips for example) shouldn't have a negative self-image because of that, and having to have a different term for people who are simply made different than a Brazilian swimsuit model should be insulting. That's what I see as the bigger issue.


I'm not built like an underwear model, but I'd consider being called "hugable" as an insult. I'm dead center in my ideal weight range and fit and healthy, even if I'm not cut up. I don't need a different descriptor to ease the pain of not looking like a GQ model.

I never understood this mentality.

If your child brings home a C, would you tell them that it's good enough and they should be happy with it? Or would you encourage them to keep trying harder?

Personally, I'm just ok with how my body is at the moment, and that's why I watch what I eat now more than when I was younger, and hit the gym 4 days a week. Every couple of months, I look in the mirror and see the results of my hard work.

Why exactly is this a dangerous mentality to give to children? We tell them to strive to do and be better in every aspect of their lives all the time except their physical body, which is easily one of the most important. There, we tell them it's ok to be mediocre, and some people even tell them it's ok to be below average or just not care. I suspect it's because most people are neither happy with their body, nor have the motivation to improve themselves, so they tell their children it's ok to be mediocre just so they can live vicariously through them.

The cheesiest there is baby!

(In a purposely dry monotone) Its my character's initials...