News

by Golda Poretsky, H.H.C.
www.bodylovewellness.com

In case you haven’t heard, according to Lane Bryant’s blog, both Fox and ABC banned the airing of this Lane Bryant commercial featuring plus sized model Ashley Graham during airings of American Idol and Dancing With The Stars.

Hot, right? For plus sized gals, both the model and the styles portrayed are nothing new. Most of us probably have at least one of those lacy padded plunge bras in our dressers (or, uh, like 8 of them, if you’re me).

So what’s the big deal? Victoria’s Secret ads roll all night long. Desperate housewives, soap opera leading ladies, model contestants and reality show stars often strip down to less. On utterly heinous The Biggest Loser, people twice her size strip down to less clothing. So why should a curvaceous model in some lingerie cause such a stir?

Why?

Because this ad breaks every rule of what the media expects us to think about women her size.

So let’s take a moment to consider the rules for the appearance of women on television, as I see them.

1. If you’re on television and you’re bigger than a size 4, you could be considered fat and be subject to a segment (t.v. news) or storyline (sitcom/reality show/talk show) about being fat. See, e.g., Ugly Betty, Mad Men, Drop Dead Diva, Kirstie Alley’s Big Life, Fat Actress, Carnie Wilson: Unstapled, Oprah, Tyra, Roseanne, Facts Of Life, Babes.
2. If you’re (god forbid) plus sized, you should desperately want to lose weight. See, e.g., the shows listed above, plus Dance Your Ass Off, The Biggest Loser, Celebrity Fit Club.
3. If you’re (god forbid) plus sized, you can’t get a date or your relationships will suffer. See, e.g., all of the above, plus More To Love.
4. If you’re (god forbid) plus sized, you can’t be too confident, or consistently confident. See, e.g., all of the above.
5. If you’re (god forbid) plus sized, you want to be as covered up as possible. See, e.g., all of the above.*
6. If you’re going to produce a sexy lingerie ad (rather than one extolling comfort, like Playtex ads), the women must be gaunt, oddly and contortedly posed, with weird lighting, creepy music, and an overall feeling of objectification and male gaze. See, e.g., every Victoria’s Secret ad in recent memory, except for this one that seems to have a horse’s gaze.

This Lane Bryant ad breaks all of these rules. We see a beautiful, plus sized woman enjoying herself in lingerie. She’s trying on a bunch items, not in exasperation, but in enjoyment. The gaze we notice most is her own. She’s checking herself out in the mirror, smiling at herself, tossing her hair. She’s not posing for anyone, she’s just enjoying the view. Then she gets a reminder to meet a guy for “lunch” and walks out the door, confidently, in her bra, panties, and a trench coat.

We get the picture of a woman who really owns her beauty, her sexuality, and her body. You get the feeling that even if her lunch date doesn’t show, she has dinner plans with someone better, even if that someone better is herself.

Of course, the ad plays on old tropes, like the woman meeting her guy for lunch while nearly naked under her trench coat, and the old “this isn’t your mom’s lingerie” age-ist, voice-over (this last part annoys me intensely).

But given that, this ad just breaks way too many unwritten rules to be aired. What if (god forbid) ABC and Fox aired this, and suddenly their plus sized viewers started spending their hard earned money on jug-enhancing** bras instead of Jenny Craig? What if they let their Weight Watchers membership lapse in favor of some lingerie? What if they started adding up lacy numbers instead of calorie numbers?

Okay, you get the idea. The networks have a huge stake in the status quo of body hatred, and this ad is just way outside of their comfort zone. As for me, I might need to pick up another plunge bra. :)

So this week, I encourage you to have a little mirror time with yourself. Put on some music and some lingerie if you’ve got it (naked is good too) and enjoy looking at yourself. Enjoy the curve of your shoulder, the swerve of your hip, the rolls of fat, the ripples of muscle. Use words of approval. Wink at yourself. This exercise is only about your enjoyment of yourself. Nothing else matters.

Let me know how the experiment goes…

*These are just the shows that I could think of off the top of my head. Feel free to comment with more!
**Yes, I wrote “jugs”. Alliteration can get you in trouble.

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.