What is Plus Size Exactly?

According to the fashion industry anything over size 6 is plus size - can you BELIEVE that !??? It is INSANITY??


As far as I know, the average sized woman now-a-days is a size 14 / 16.  I know women who run everywhere from a super fit size 6 (a runner) to curvy 16 to a larger 20 (me).  


In the straight sized fashion industry the  usual model you see is a size 0 or 00.  The models' weight usually fall in a zone that would quality for anorexia.  There is something terribly wrong with this.  


I know that I am overweight and that I need to work to become more healthy.  I am working on this.  I am trying harder to eat more vegetables and fruit, to incorporate more whole grains in my diet and exercise more.  But it is my 'body type' that is frowned upon by society, by the straight sized fashion industry.  I am 'told' that I need to get my act together.  Yet where is the outcry for these poor models to get their act together to eat healthy, to put more healthy foods into their diet and put on healthy weight?  This is the unhealthy imbalance in our society.  


If you are unhealthy but look skinny society says you are okay.  You 'must' be healthy because you look thin.  If you are overweight then you MUST be unhealthy and therefore you are a pariah.  You are subject to all kinds of shaming behavior.  This cannot continue.

I am a size 20 and I am in excellent health. My blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar are all in normal ranges.  You can't judge healthy from the outside all the time.  I have friends who 'look' thin and healthy who have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.  Looks don't equal health.


Designers are beginning to realize that women come in all sizes and plus size women deserve to look good.  Deserve to feel good.  That women of all sizes love fashion and that we all have the desire to express ourselves through fashion.  There is even a Full Figured Fashion Week now! (YAY!)  There are plethora of plus-size fashion blogs popping up all over the place - which are what have inspired me to love the body I'm in WHILE I'm working to get healthy and fit.


I can only hope that women of all sizes begin to work to try to become more fit and healthy and that they also begin to enjoy fashion more and let it be something that helps lift their self esteem and bring them closer together with all the fabulous wonderful women out there.  We as women need to love one another more.


Here is a great article speaking a bit more about this topic:


What's Wrong With Our Bodies Anyway