MacMadame
08-26-2010, 01:39 AM
Most of the people I see on a daily basis are neither. They are firmly in the size 6-10 range.
I don't think you can generalize based on sizes like that. It also depends on how tall you are. For me, size 6-10 would be overweight, not normal. I'm pretty short and have a small frame.
Yep-and every time you pick up a tabloid magazine you see some article about Oprah's fluctuating weight. She's thin! She's fat! She's losing! She's gaining!
Instead of celebrating her success, too often many times her publicity revolves around her weight. Not all the time, but too darn much.
I agree with you to some extent, but I also think that Oprah has brought at least some of this onto herself because she has made her weight a public topic of conversation by doing things like having whole shows about it.
This straight up annoys me. Every single woman IS a real woman! Whether they're model thin or obese, they're all REAL! I'm short, and a size 4. By your defintion, I'm not real because I'm not a size 12? I really despise the "real women have curves" thought process. Sorry, but that's just BS. We're all real.
Amen! What kills me is when people say things like "I want to be healthy, not a size 0 or 2" as if no one who is that size could possibly be healthy. Not all size 0 people are 5'10" and model skinny.
I don't think it helps matters to demonize the thin either as I sometimes see people do. It's like it's okay in some circles to call someone a skinny bitch when it wouldn't be okay to call them a fat pig. That's just as bad as the circles where it's okay to call someone a fat pig IMO.
Before all of this vanity sizing
I hate to tell you this, but there has been vanity sizing since the birth of the ready-to-wear clothing industry. :P
The way that industry works is that a line's "medium" is supposed to be their main seller. The formulas for ordering fabric and running the business are based on this premise. So, if they cater to a clientele with smaller sized-women, their medium will be smaller than a line that caters to a larger clientele. Then, as women's sizes have changed overall as a group -- getting thicker waists as corsets went out of style, getting larger overall as obesity rates rise -- sizes change to match.
This makes economic sense as you don't want your line to fit people who don't buy your clothes and its easier to change the sizes than to come up with all new formulas.
From what I've seen as a person who's been buying clothes since the 70s, the big jumps happen about every 10-15 years as it takes that long for an entire population to change. I was a size 8 in '71. I'm actually smaller in the hips, legs and arms now (But bigger in the bust and taller -- I was just 13 back then and not done growing) and now I'm size 2. So you figure since the 70s, that's at least 3 changes in the sizes, maybe 4 as I might be a 6 in 70s clothing today. It's hard to tell.
But some of this "vanity sizing" we really have only ourselves to blame. Talbots did a study of their customers and discovered that the majority of them have certain sizes they just will not buy. It doesn't matter if it fits perfectly. They don't want to buy clothing with that bigger number on the tag! If women didn't care, we could do all sizes by inches and the only thing that would change would be what numbers were on the sizes that the stores carried. I.E., The range would go up as people got bigger.
I thought I had a quote from someone who asked what people smaller than a size 0 do. I have a friend like that and she buys stuff in the kids' department. There is also a size 00 but it's actually a Jr. size so it doesn't work if you have a bust or hips.
You don't even have to be smaller than a size 0 to find stuff in the kids' department. A size 16 is about a size 2. I have a pair of skinny jeans and a gorgeous sweater I got from Justice for Girls when I was in there with Mini-Mac. The only problem is, girl sizes have no waists so some stuff isn't cut right. OTOH, if you are someone who isn't shaped like the typical Junior or typical Misses fit model, going to the kids' department or the mens department might work for you depending on what the article of clothing is and how you differ from the norm.
I don't think you can generalize based on sizes like that. It also depends on how tall you are. For me, size 6-10 would be overweight, not normal. I'm pretty short and have a small frame.
Yep-and every time you pick up a tabloid magazine you see some article about Oprah's fluctuating weight. She's thin! She's fat! She's losing! She's gaining!
Instead of celebrating her success, too often many times her publicity revolves around her weight. Not all the time, but too darn much.
I agree with you to some extent, but I also think that Oprah has brought at least some of this onto herself because she has made her weight a public topic of conversation by doing things like having whole shows about it.
This straight up annoys me. Every single woman IS a real woman! Whether they're model thin or obese, they're all REAL! I'm short, and a size 4. By your defintion, I'm not real because I'm not a size 12? I really despise the "real women have curves" thought process. Sorry, but that's just BS. We're all real.
Amen! What kills me is when people say things like "I want to be healthy, not a size 0 or 2" as if no one who is that size could possibly be healthy. Not all size 0 people are 5'10" and model skinny.
I don't think it helps matters to demonize the thin either as I sometimes see people do. It's like it's okay in some circles to call someone a skinny bitch when it wouldn't be okay to call them a fat pig. That's just as bad as the circles where it's okay to call someone a fat pig IMO.
Before all of this vanity sizing
I hate to tell you this, but there has been vanity sizing since the birth of the ready-to-wear clothing industry. :P
The way that industry works is that a line's "medium" is supposed to be their main seller. The formulas for ordering fabric and running the business are based on this premise. So, if they cater to a clientele with smaller sized-women, their medium will be smaller than a line that caters to a larger clientele. Then, as women's sizes have changed overall as a group -- getting thicker waists as corsets went out of style, getting larger overall as obesity rates rise -- sizes change to match.
This makes economic sense as you don't want your line to fit people who don't buy your clothes and its easier to change the sizes than to come up with all new formulas.
From what I've seen as a person who's been buying clothes since the 70s, the big jumps happen about every 10-15 years as it takes that long for an entire population to change. I was a size 8 in '71. I'm actually smaller in the hips, legs and arms now (But bigger in the bust and taller -- I was just 13 back then and not done growing) and now I'm size 2. So you figure since the 70s, that's at least 3 changes in the sizes, maybe 4 as I might be a 6 in 70s clothing today. It's hard to tell.
But some of this "vanity sizing" we really have only ourselves to blame. Talbots did a study of their customers and discovered that the majority of them have certain sizes they just will not buy. It doesn't matter if it fits perfectly. They don't want to buy clothing with that bigger number on the tag! If women didn't care, we could do all sizes by inches and the only thing that would change would be what numbers were on the sizes that the stores carried. I.E., The range would go up as people got bigger.
I thought I had a quote from someone who asked what people smaller than a size 0 do. I have a friend like that and she buys stuff in the kids' department. There is also a size 00 but it's actually a Jr. size so it doesn't work if you have a bust or hips.
You don't even have to be smaller than a size 0 to find stuff in the kids' department. A size 16 is about a size 2. I have a pair of skinny jeans and a gorgeous sweater I got from Justice for Girls when I was in there with Mini-Mac. The only problem is, girl sizes have no waists so some stuff isn't cut right. OTOH, if you are someone who isn't shaped like the typical Junior or typical Misses fit model, going to the kids' department or the mens department might work for you depending on what the article of clothing is and how you differ from the norm.