Obesity: Plus-sized Mannequins Getting Oversized Reaction

November 28, 2012

Obesity:  Plus-sized Mannequins Getting Oversized Reaction

For years, department stores have featured skinny mannequins to display the latest trends in clothing and super thin runway models have been the gold standard  in visual art form for presenting new lines to the fashion world.  But our society is changing, has changed, and with obesity on the rise, more and more retailers are introducing plus-sized mannequins, and this has caused some in the blogosphere to react with oversized reactions.

Recently, a Reddit forum post  by one user prompted an online debate.  “Anyone else horrified that they make obese mannequins now?” wrote the poster.  The responses were varied.   Some were cruel, others were offended, some were creeped out by the obese mannequin.  Words to describe overweight people and body proportions were bantered about.

“The reason this is horrifying is because, oh shi$$, obesity is becoming so mainstream it’s a market.   Obesity should not be 1/3 of the population, and people should not be OK with that.”  wrote one Reddit user.

And the debate continued.  Another poster who struggles with obesity wrote:

"Believe it or not, we fat people have to wear clothes when we go out in public or the police get rude to us and our naughty bits freeze solid and fall off at awkward times. I know we could conform to your idea of what we should look like by randomly buying ugly clothes that don’t fit right and living with whatever we look like and the associated negative consequences to our jobs and social lives, but I guess I’m just old fashioned and want to have clothes that fit me decently and look at least acceptable. Clothes may not be able to make me attractive, but they can at least make me somewhat better than an eyesore, so I’m aiming to look better than a homeless person. Part of doing that is being able to see the clothes, sometimes on something more human-like than a clothes hanger, which - let’s face it - is thinner than me."

Well said my friend!

What are your thoughts about this topic?  We would like to hear from you!