by J.L. McKenzie

Created on: June 17, 2010   Last Updated: June 23, 2010

Plus sized women have the right to model plus sized clothing, not skinny women. Skinny models do not demonstrate what this or that garment is going to look like on a woman who is over a size zero.

I go to the stores that sell plus sized clothing and see that the mannequins are skinny and that the clothing has been pinned back to give the illusion of slight size. This is not realistic or fair to the plus size community.

It is unacceptable in today's society to be over a size ten, let us be honest. In that vein, it is also unacceptable to have a model who is actually the size of the garment she is trying to sell walking down a runway. We need more, not less, plus sized models who can show me that women with curves are empowered and beautiful.

Women with curves are beautiful and this is something that fashion designers have chosen to ignore. There needs to be a major wake up call in the ranks of fashion to let the plus size women in.

Being a plus size women myself, I can see the hypocrisy in the fashion magazines that do spreads on plus size women when the models look barely over a ten. I can see it when I look through the catalogs and see plus size clothing modeled by skinny women. Everything out there is trained to make the plus sized woman ashamed of herself and that needs to stop now.

When marketing for African-Americans, you do not put a Caucasian in to model. When you are marketing for the disabled, you do not put a champion triathlon winner in to model. When you are marketing for the plus size woman, you do not put in a skinny woman where one with curves should be. To do anything else would be insulting.

Frankly, when I see a skinny model for a plus size company, I stop using that company. If they want to lie to themselves and to us and try to make me feel inadequate because I'm not going to look the way the model does, the do not need my business.

Plus sized woman are gorgeous and a bigger, no pun intended, slice of society than the skinny woman. There should be plus sized models along with the skinny models so we can get a taste of what new garments are going to look like on a range of women.

Simply put, plus sized models should be modeling plus sized clothing. It makes practical sense.

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