Linda
02-21-2004, 03:08 PM
Big size is super for some women
February 17, 2004
By Rhonda Bodfield Bloom / Arizona Daily Star
There are always going to be some women built like the slim stalks of flowers. There are always going to be others with a more trunklike sturdiness to them.
No aspen is ever going to look like a daisy, and carbs have nothing to do with it.
While we’re light years away from a society in which women don’t gain value based on a fickle genetic pool and the strength of self-denial, there is, perhaps, the faintest little heartbeat of change.
A growing number of pop culture icons have shapes harkening back to the va-va-voom days of Marilyn Monroe. Beyoncé, J.Lo, Pink, Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones aren’t cut from the celery-stalk frames of Sarah Jessica Parker and Cameron Diaz but come with varying degrees of curves.
And one look down mall aisles shows young women pouring actual hips into those hip-hugger jeans and flashing real bellies in those midriff-baring tops.
It’s a trend Gale Welter, a University of Arizona nutrition counselor, has noticed. “I do notice women who have fuller figures are not hesitating to wear what Britney Spears might wear. I cannot tell you what’s in their heads. I’d like to sit down and ask them, but I can’t figure out how to do that.”
Norman Weiss, founder of the New York-based Internet fashion company Alight.com, thinks he has the answer. His company, which sells only stylish, larger-size fashions — and quite a few sexy, bare little numbers — doubled in business between 2001 and 2003.
“I’ve been in the clothing business 30 years. The thinking used to be that you couldn’t make certain styles in plus sizes. I can honestly say now that everything goes. If it’s an item that’s fashionable and happening, we’re going to put it on the site and it’s going to sell. I can’t think of an item that didn’t sell because it revealed too much,” Weiss said.
He said that with indie films like “Real Women Have Curves” and celebs like Star Jones in the limelight, there’s been growing acceptance of larger frames. “My customers feel good about themselves, and they’re not afraid to show off what they have,” he said.
Becky Coleman, a local body-image counselor and owner of Ocean Embodiment Center, interviewed women and adolescents at malls and schools for a documentary on the subject. She was struck by a few things. First, there’s a greater consciousness around body acceptance, even if acceptance doesn’t actually happen all the time. And when adolescents were asked what they liked and didn’t like about their bodies, not one of the girls mentioned her weight — something Coleman is still puzzling over.
From teaching at the community college level, Coleman has found that young adults generally fall into two camps. Most have accepted cultural stereotypes of beauty, she said, and there’s a lot of talk about working out and dieting. Then, there are the rebels, the ones who say they respect themselves just the way they are. “I think it’s definitely still in the minority, yet I do think it’s growing,” Coleman said.
Take A.J. Duxbury, a 19-year-old creative writing major at the UA who works out because she wants to be healthy, not because she’s obsessed with her weight. “I’m 5 feet, 10 inches, 160 pounds, and proud of it,” she said.
“I personally don’t wrestle with weight problems, because my family put no importance on that — it was all about what was inside — and I’m very thankful for that.”
She used to worry about it more, she said. “But I just came to the conclusion that it’s not worth it. If that’s what someone’s looking at, then I don’t want anything to do with those types of people.”
But for all that, it’s far too soon to say things are better.
The thin ideal has been ingrained in our culture for a long time. The flapper look took small hips and a flat chest. Judy Garland agonized over her weight. Then came Twiggy in the ’60s and the heroin-chic look of the ’90s.
And we’re vain. The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery last month reported growth in all areas of cosmetic procedures. Botox treatments were up 11 percent over the previous year, breast augmentation was up 8.5 percent, and liposuction remained the most popular surgical procedure. Shows like “Extreme Makeover” only fuel that trend.
Jennifer Utken, who opened the plus-size fashion store Fit To Be Tried in Tucson in 1983, said it wasn’t until she was 45 that she finally accepted that she’ll never be a small woman. As an aerobics instructor for 20 years, her lightest weight ever was about 200 pounds, and that’s when she was teaching 15 classes a week. She tried low carbs and cabbage-soup diets, and nothing worked. She weighs about 300 pounds now.
“I wish I could have all the hours back that I spent weighing and measuring food and writing everything down in a food diary. My entire life, from 25 on, was an attempt to be smaller than I am, and I’m bigger than I’ve ever been. I’m not going to do it anymore.”
But, she said, she’s finding it harder than ever to find acceptance. “With the advent of gastric bypass, it’s really affected body image. There’s shame now, because it’s almost like there’s no excuse. And with obesity as the new national epidemic, now there’s more resentment from society.”
Tucsonan Emily McGregor, an 18-year-old senior at Catalina Foothills High School, received a Gold Award — the Girl Scouts’ version of the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Award — for a film she did on body image and eating disorders. She’s one of 10 young women in the country being honored next month with the Young Women of Distinction Award, being presented at the nation’s Capitol.
McGregor said her peers are almost entirely consumed with image. Even if they don’t exhibit full-blown disorders, she said, they’re counting calories or purging at the gym — a more acceptable way than hovering over a toilet bowl.
“Yeah, Queen Latifah is out there, but she lost weight. And Oprah is constantly trying to lose weight. Diet is on the news constantly, and we hear all the time that Americans are too fat. People are still very body conscious.”
Continued...
February 17, 2004
By Rhonda Bodfield Bloom / Arizona Daily Star
There are always going to be some women built like the slim stalks of flowers. There are always going to be others with a more trunklike sturdiness to them.
No aspen is ever going to look like a daisy, and carbs have nothing to do with it.
While we’re light years away from a society in which women don’t gain value based on a fickle genetic pool and the strength of self-denial, there is, perhaps, the faintest little heartbeat of change.
A growing number of pop culture icons have shapes harkening back to the va-va-voom days of Marilyn Monroe. Beyoncé, J.Lo, Pink, Queen Latifah and Catherine Zeta-Jones aren’t cut from the celery-stalk frames of Sarah Jessica Parker and Cameron Diaz but come with varying degrees of curves.
And one look down mall aisles shows young women pouring actual hips into those hip-hugger jeans and flashing real bellies in those midriff-baring tops.
It’s a trend Gale Welter, a University of Arizona nutrition counselor, has noticed. “I do notice women who have fuller figures are not hesitating to wear what Britney Spears might wear. I cannot tell you what’s in their heads. I’d like to sit down and ask them, but I can’t figure out how to do that.”
Norman Weiss, founder of the New York-based Internet fashion company Alight.com, thinks he has the answer. His company, which sells only stylish, larger-size fashions — and quite a few sexy, bare little numbers — doubled in business between 2001 and 2003.
“I’ve been in the clothing business 30 years. The thinking used to be that you couldn’t make certain styles in plus sizes. I can honestly say now that everything goes. If it’s an item that’s fashionable and happening, we’re going to put it on the site and it’s going to sell. I can’t think of an item that didn’t sell because it revealed too much,” Weiss said.
He said that with indie films like “Real Women Have Curves” and celebs like Star Jones in the limelight, there’s been growing acceptance of larger frames. “My customers feel good about themselves, and they’re not afraid to show off what they have,” he said.
Becky Coleman, a local body-image counselor and owner of Ocean Embodiment Center, interviewed women and adolescents at malls and schools for a documentary on the subject. She was struck by a few things. First, there’s a greater consciousness around body acceptance, even if acceptance doesn’t actually happen all the time. And when adolescents were asked what they liked and didn’t like about their bodies, not one of the girls mentioned her weight — something Coleman is still puzzling over.
From teaching at the community college level, Coleman has found that young adults generally fall into two camps. Most have accepted cultural stereotypes of beauty, she said, and there’s a lot of talk about working out and dieting. Then, there are the rebels, the ones who say they respect themselves just the way they are. “I think it’s definitely still in the minority, yet I do think it’s growing,” Coleman said.
Take A.J. Duxbury, a 19-year-old creative writing major at the UA who works out because she wants to be healthy, not because she’s obsessed with her weight. “I’m 5 feet, 10 inches, 160 pounds, and proud of it,” she said.
“I personally don’t wrestle with weight problems, because my family put no importance on that — it was all about what was inside — and I’m very thankful for that.”
She used to worry about it more, she said. “But I just came to the conclusion that it’s not worth it. If that’s what someone’s looking at, then I don’t want anything to do with those types of people.”
But for all that, it’s far too soon to say things are better.
The thin ideal has been ingrained in our culture for a long time. The flapper look took small hips and a flat chest. Judy Garland agonized over her weight. Then came Twiggy in the ’60s and the heroin-chic look of the ’90s.
And we’re vain. The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery last month reported growth in all areas of cosmetic procedures. Botox treatments were up 11 percent over the previous year, breast augmentation was up 8.5 percent, and liposuction remained the most popular surgical procedure. Shows like “Extreme Makeover” only fuel that trend.
Jennifer Utken, who opened the plus-size fashion store Fit To Be Tried in Tucson in 1983, said it wasn’t until she was 45 that she finally accepted that she’ll never be a small woman. As an aerobics instructor for 20 years, her lightest weight ever was about 200 pounds, and that’s when she was teaching 15 classes a week. She tried low carbs and cabbage-soup diets, and nothing worked. She weighs about 300 pounds now.
“I wish I could have all the hours back that I spent weighing and measuring food and writing everything down in a food diary. My entire life, from 25 on, was an attempt to be smaller than I am, and I’m bigger than I’ve ever been. I’m not going to do it anymore.”
But, she said, she’s finding it harder than ever to find acceptance. “With the advent of gastric bypass, it’s really affected body image. There’s shame now, because it’s almost like there’s no excuse. And with obesity as the new national epidemic, now there’s more resentment from society.”
Tucsonan Emily McGregor, an 18-year-old senior at Catalina Foothills High School, received a Gold Award — the Girl Scouts’ version of the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Award — for a film she did on body image and eating disorders. She’s one of 10 young women in the country being honored next month with the Young Women of Distinction Award, being presented at the nation’s Capitol.
McGregor said her peers are almost entirely consumed with image. Even if they don’t exhibit full-blown disorders, she said, they’re counting calories or purging at the gym — a more acceptable way than hovering over a toilet bowl.
“Yeah, Queen Latifah is out there, but she lost weight. And Oprah is constantly trying to lose weight. Diet is on the news constantly, and we hear all the time that Americans are too fat. People are still very body conscious.”
Continued...