Fat is a don't

I came across this nice article from Glamour magazine about "the woman on p. 194."

Basically, Glamour was doing an article "on feeling comfortable in your skin, and wanted a model who looked like she was."

The model in the photo they commissioned is plus-size model Lizzi Miller. Reader comments were raves:

"This beautiful woman has a real stomach and did I even see a few stretch marks? This is how my belly looks after giving birth to my two amazing kids! This photo made me want to shout from the rooftops."

The response was overwhelmingly positive, even by the editors:

So let's start off this week with something we can all get behind: a toast to the woman on p. 194, and to the spectacular sexiness of owning who you are. Trust me, Glamour's listening, and this only strengthens our commitment to celebrating all kinds of beauty.

Inspired, I started poking around on the site and remembered that, back in the days I used to subscribe (high school? college? something like that), I enjoyed the Dos and Don'ts feature, where they take clandestine photos on the street of looks both good and bad, obscuring the embarrassing fashion victims with black bars over their eyes.

Apparently, now you can upload your own surreptitious shots and rate and comment on others' contributions. Not sure which gallery to browse, I settled on "Worst Don'ts" and "Best Dos."

Let me offer you a couple screen shots of what I found:





Guess which is the do and which the don't. It's easy, folks — fat people shouldn't be allowed in public, and thin, young, pretty people are popular. I remember in the magazine version that the emphasis was on fashion faux pas, not just on what body shapes make people feel pukey or happy. There are a couple exceptions of making fun of specific features in the Don'ts, and there is a focus on skankiness, but...every single full-bodied shot is of someone who's overweight. There are women wearing very little fabric in the Dos, but that's allowed. Because, you know, fat people are gross. Gee, I'm so glad there are online galleries to point that out to me.

The more things change...

Photo copyright Walter Chin for Glamour magazine