Feminist, Fat, and Fabulous Blog: You Don’t Put A Big Girl In A Big Dress

There was a recent brouhaha about a photoshopped picture in the New York Times of Christina Hendricks (Joan from Mad Men) at the Golden Globes.

The New York Times took the photo down and posted a retraction, saying something about ‘routine processing’. Yeah, sure. The columnist talked about whether Christina Hendricks was too fat for fashion and the dress she was wearing, citing stylists saying: ‘You don’t put a big girl in a big dress’.

Of course, this is ridiculous. Christina Hendricks is not ‘big’. She’s curvy in the old-school sense of the word, with large breasts and a small waist, but she’d be max around an Australian size 10.

However, debate raged. All over the internet, on forums, on websites, on blogs.

And it sadly wasn’t very long before the debate on a particular forum turned to personally insulting fat people, personally insulting skinny people, and an argument about the health of both body types. This was on a fashion forum where the vast majority of the posters are women.

I know I’ve discussed this before, and will probably keep discussing it until I’m blue in the face. But why, why are the worst critics of women, other women?

It would be naive of me to expect a vast sisterhood. We’re all different people, all aiming for different goals. We’re not all going to be content with joining hands and tiptoeing through the tulips together. But I’d ask one thing, just one thing.

Can we please stop being so harsh and judgemental about other women’s bodies? Can the magazines stop with the constant diet talk? Do we really care about celebrity bikini bodies and the cellulite on a fashion model? God, I know I don’t. Surely there are more important things in the world to focus on?

Now, I’m as shallow as the next person. Sometimes all I want to do is focus on the pretty clothes and the pretty person wearing those clothes. But I know fashion, women, and bodies don’t exist in a vacuum.

Discussion and debate are both good things. But when they turn into trolling, when they turn into fat and skinny bashing, it makes me sad. It’s not productive; it doesn’t do anything besides make everyone feel bad about themselves, their bodies, and their choices. Quite frankly, I think, sadly, we can all do a pretty good job of this on our own, without the help of other comments, magazines, or celebrities.