OMG, a fat woman on the cover of Cosmo! The world is ending.
At least this is what Pierce Morgan seems to think. How dare Cosmo celebrate a large body when there is an “obesity crisis” in the UK? Strangely enough, I do not recall Morgan saying anything when Kate Moss was on the cover of.. well, everything… in the mid-1990s, and “heroin chic” was a LOOK, for God’s sake.
By the way, this is not the first time a mainstream magazine put a woman in a larger body on the cover. Rebel Wilson graced the cover of the January 2016 issue, but with less fanfare. Elle featured Gabourey Sidibe on its cover in 2010.
Perhaps, what’s so shocking is that Holliday is fat. Not like… curvy, or plump, or whatever the hell else euphemisms we use, but very unapologetically 300-pounds fat. This is nothing like Glamour cheerfully labelling Amy Schumer as “plus-sized” at size 8. Remember that?
I am honestly not interested in discussing whether or not Tess Holliday is a good “poster girl” for the body positivity movement. What I am interested in is seeing bodies of different shapes, sizes, and yes, races, abilities, backgrounds, portrayed more.
If a 12-year old girl standing at the check out line at a supermarket can see a woman in a large body on a cover of a fashion magazine, a woman whose thighs do not touch (not even close), a woman who has knee rolls, and soft arms, and a belly – an actual visible belly…
She sees that image in addition to THIS image:
And she sees this image WITHOUT a caption that says “and here’s how Tess lost 50 pounds in 30 days!”, I’d say that the impact is a net positive. (Kind of like that time MAC featured a figure competitor in their campaign).
Well done, 2018. Let's see more of that. Hugs, SOLO