My Personal Struggle
The Body Positive Movement in Society
Fitting In As The “ In Between ” Women
Taking This Question to the Streets
Have you ever felt like this ? I have . My friends have . Multiple people I know have .
Women between sizes 4 and 12 tend to have this issue . You are not alone . And here ’ s why .
My Personal Struggle
Normally , I am size 8 . Well technically , one brand of jeans tells me I am size 8 , another tells me I am a size 6 and another tells me I am size 10 . I am normally a size small in shirts , but in dresses , I have to get a medium or large because I ’ m small in my shoulders and chest but bigger in thighs and butt .
My weight varies weekly . I fluctuate a couple pounds here and there , but I bet if I check my BMI right now , it would tell me I am overweight .
The ads to my favorite stores tell me I am too . But am I ? I personally would not label myself plus-size or even overweight . I am active every day and eat very healthy . However , society tells me different .
Like most women , I love to shop online . I continue to be inundated with images of women that do not have my body type advertising the clothing line . I see outfits I love but when I don ’ t see a girl who fits my body type modeling it , it ’ s hard for me to see how well someone with my shape would look in that outfit .
Shopping is frustrating enough when something doesn ’ t fit you but when you don ’ t even see women of your shape wearing the clothes , it ’ s even more frustrating .
Advertisers continue to miss the mark with women around me and myself .
The Body Positive Movement in Society
We have done a great job in the last few years to encourage women to love their bodies , whether they are a size 0 , size 16 or somewhere in between . Plus-sized models are becoming more mainstream , even gracing the cover of the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated . But one thing that still seems to be missing is the appearance of average-sized women – the “ in between ” sizes , the women between the sizes of 4-12 or in my case the size of 6-10 .
The women that take about most of the percentage of our population . These are the women that don ’ t see their size portrayed in the media and are not sure where they fit in .
They are too big to be considered “ skinny ” in the modeling world , and yet too small to be considered “ plus size ”. In today ’ s society , self-love is already hard , but when we feel under-represented in the media , it gets even harder . So what are these women labeled as ?
Self Love Beauty ’ s mission is for women of all shapes and sizes to love their bodies and feel confident in their own skin , no matter what side of the spectrum you fit in . It ’ s great that we ’ re starting to see more full figured women represented in clothing and beauty ads , but society has skipped over a large section of the population .
Women like me deserve a voice too .
Fitting In As The “ In Between ” Women
I believe women in my size range have more body shame then others . Why ? Because our bodies are under-represented in advertisements and the media , making it seem like we ’ re out of place if we don ’ t fit into one of the two body categories – skinny or plus size .
Taking This Question to the Streets
Just like you and I , there are many other women that feel this way .
So I asked these women what they have experienced and how they feel about their body size being represented in society . Here is what they had to say ...
30