Plus is... equal?

Lane Bryant recently launched a campaign called "Plus is Equal." On the surface, it's a seems like a spectacular thing, a company who caters to plus size women calling for body diversity in the media...what could be wrong about that? (Before anyone wants to go "promoting obesity" I'd like to extend the warmest possible fuck you to you and tell you that fat people existing promotes nothing except their right to exist.)

I, as a plus size woman, do believe that plus is equal. I'm a human, just like every other various sized human out there, and we ALL deserve some common decency and a good level of respect. Skinny shaming is just as wrong as fat shaming, telling a skinny person to put down a cheeseburger is just as offensive as telling a fat person to put theirs down.  Basically, I'm not an asshole and don't believe others should be assholes either.

But, upon looking closer at "Plus is Equal" I have to question if Lane Bryant actually believes it. After all, this is the most diverse group of women they could come up with? 

Diversity.. I don't really see it. Are they larger than the average model? Yes. But they still have the "acceptable" fat. The hourglass frame, flat stomachs, tall and beautiful.  Cellulite? Stretchmarks? Where?? These women are truly beautiful but is the campaign really that diverse? Is it really proving that plus is equal? I thought that maybe, just maybe I was missing something... so I decided to look further.

I looked at their site, where they were selling the "plus is equal" t-shirts (at an outrageous price for a t-shirt mind you, but that's my frugal voice speaking here) to see if they had any mission statement or something, just anything; to let me understand how Plus is Equal. All that site told me is they sold the shirts from size 14-28 and it was "time to represent."

So, I went looking further. I checked out the actual Plus is Equal website they launched... and found this:

Huh. 14-34..... but didn't the Lane Bryant site just tell me they only went up to a size 28 for the shirts? Weird. So I looked up LB size charts, this company who is boasting "Plus is Equal" also boasts that their clothes go up to a size 32.... so if this campaign is actually all inclusive, like they claim it to be... why doesn't it cater to even THEIR full size range? That seems rather exclusionary to me, personally. Plus is Equal... but only up to this certain size? Plus is Equal... but we don't cater to all plus size women we claim are underrepresented?

Still, I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt. I wanted so much to be able to support this campaign... and then I found out about the NYC rally. I found out, at this Plus is Equal rally, meant to REPRESENT the underrepresented women.. that they only sold their campaign shirts sizes s-xl. At a rally for plus sized people to be represented, they didn't even sell PLUS SIZE shirts. To further this, the MC of the evening was a size 10 (which is a perfectly fine size but not considered plus size in retail standards) who went on to talk about her weight loss. Then other speakers went on saying curves were okay but unhealthy habits weren't. I guess I just don't understand how Plus is Equal, but it's only equal if you're working on changing it or eating only the healthiest of foods. I don't understand how a non-plus woman could go on about her weight loss, for a campaign meant to tell plus size women "hey, you're equal! You're good. You deserve to be represented."

But they don't believe it. I wanted to think Lane Bryant actually believed what they were saying, but they don't. Instead, they're trying to monopolize and capitalize on the body positive movement. They've recognized us, but not how we want to be recognized. They've recognized that we have money and are willing to spend it on things we find important... so they've made this facade trying to tell us that Plus is Equal... when it's something they don't believe but we already know to be true. We KNOW we are equal, that's why we share ourselves with the world.

Plus is Equal, but I can't support Lane Bryants equation of it. Plus is only equal to them in plus size dollars vs straight sized dollars.

Instead of supporting "Plus is Equal" I'm supporting A Curvy Cupcake's idea that "This is Plus."

 


This is Plus. It's not perfect symmetry, airbrushed skin, or flawless smooth shape. It's not a perfect hourglass (though God knows those women are gorgeous too) It's jiggly. A little lumpy. Flabby arms and thick thunder thighs.  You probably won't see this on any mainstream runway or in a catalog. Despite companies claiming to represent their full range of clientele, it just doesn't happen; not by places like Lane Bryant at least.  But this is plus. As is the smaller end of the plus spectrum. As is the bigger end of the plus spectrum. We're plus and we're here to represent. Because no mainstream company will represent us, we're representing our damn selves.