Sheesh, I hope you guys are happy now.
Posted on 02/08/2003 5:34:33 PM PST by MadIvan
From the age of nine, Jessica Roberts hid inside baggy T-shirts which became her sanctuary. A large girl, for years she went to extraordinary lengths to prevent anyone glimpsing the flesh that she had come to loathe.
Now 21, she smiles ruefully at the terror that the thought of a school swimming gala could once induce: Jessica is no longer ashamed of her size and is one of a growing number of young American women who are proud to flaunt their ample flesh in public.
"I've had a string of boys. I'm happy," says Jessica, who is studying for a degree in anthropology. "I would like to think that I am a nice shape," she adds with a flutter of her eyelashes and a giggle.
Even Manhattan, home to the "social X-rays" as they were described by Tom Wolfe in his best-selling novel Bonfire of the Vanities, has joined the "fat backlash" that is sweeping America.
Last week, Kelly Osbourne, one of the stars of the popular fly-on-the-wall television series The Osbournes, appeared on a catwalk with a host of other full-figured models, including Mia Tyler, the sister of actress Liv, who displayed more than the usual amount of bosom and backside.
In the show for Lane Bryant, the fashion house for what the industry considers "plus-size" women, Roseanne Barr, wearing a black bustier, pedal-pushers and a top hat, summed up the mood as she shouted to the audience: "Any fat people here? I'm the queen of all the fat people."
The changing attitude hit the newstands this month in the February issue of American Vogue, which featured Sophie Dahl, the British model, on its cover. Its younger sister Teen Vogue had the cover headline: "Making It Big: how curvy girls are changing Hollywood's stick-thin standards".
Inside the youth magazine is the story of the actress Marissa Jaret Winokur, who has graduated from a teenage television series to a role in the Broadway hit Hairspray. Under the headline "Well rounded" are photographs of Ms Winokur and other well-padded stars, ranging from Kate Winslet, the British actress, and Jennifer Lopez, the singer, to Miss Osbourne. The magazines were published after a film season in which two unexpected box-office hits and Oscar contenders - Real Women Have Curves and My Big Fat Greek Wedding - became national talking points. Andrea Marks, a specialist in child and adolescent medicine, said: "These are messages that are a backlash to years of other unhealthy messages."
Dr Marks has recently published a self-help book for parents and teenagers called Healthy Teens, Body and Soul which includes chapters on the crisis of puberty, healthy nutrition and, under the heading "Panic at the Mirror", the issue of body image. She said: "We all want to look attractive and there are always social standards for attractiveness. But we are saying don't fight it so much and think about other things than body size. We are seeing a sense of pride emerging among a new generation."
The most striking evidence of a teenage rebellion has emerged in the marketplace. Torrid, a national chain of fashion stores based in suburban shopping malls, has defied economic recession with growth so rapid that it has been featured in Fortune magazine. Torrid sells extreme fashion for teenagers - stomach-baring tops, low-riding trousers, punk styles and daring black vinyl outfits - but all in sizes from a US 14 upwards (UK 16). Last week Jessica, a US size 14, was selecting the latest "flaunt-it" styles before returning to college. "I know now that I've never been overweight and ugly," she said. "I was just judging myself too harshly. If you don't care, it doesn't matter if anyone else does."
The first Torrid was opened in 2001 in California by the boutique entrepreneur Betsy McLaughlin. Last year the chain expanded by 21 branches, with plans for another 25 this year. Miss McLaughlin hit the jackpot by listening to customers of her original teenage boutique, Hot Topic, a version of London's punk boutiques sanitised for the American shopping centre. Teenage girls already up to a plus size, making them too big for her clothes, would buy clothes designed for boys. "The paradigm that the larger girl does not want to show skin does not hold," she said. While there is, as yet, no shop in Manhattan, the outlet across the bay in New Jersey's largest shopping centre, the Garden State Mall, has produced record revenues for the chain since it opened eight months ago.
Its manager, Yolanda Rivera, said: "We listen to our customers. We keep up with the styles they want, but the point is that we sell them in the sizes that the girls are in real life. And nearly all my customers are happy with the way they are."
On a weekday afternoon, Jane Gregorits had driven to the Garden State Mall with her daughter, Kate, 15, who is tall and big-boned like her mother. Kate, who is shy and dressed in jeans and an oversized sweater, spent more than an hour trying on the clothes. "We are a tall, big family and you would not believe how hard it is to find clothes a girl like Kate needs to feel good. There is a huge market for these clothes. We do not want our daughter to change, it is fashion that will change." said Mrs Gregorits.
Fashion watchers say that the phenomenon may be related to America's struggle with obesity, which affects half the population, even the increasing multi-ethnic youth. Black and Hispanic Americans, who have never been influenced by the images of fashion waifs, appreciate the "fuller" female figure such as that of the Latin pop star Jennifer Lopez.
But Atoosa Rubenstein, the editor of Cosmo Girl, says that her readers are simply "less obsessed" with dieting and exercise to attain the model-thin ideal. "My generation was self-hating - we really thought we had to look like supermodels," said the 30-year-old.
Dr Marks agreed, saying that feminism may have been responsible for the growing obsession with the body beautiful. "Eating disorders increased alarmingly at the time of the rise in feminism and sexual liberation," she said. "Feminism increased pressure on women to be perfect and in control."
Now, she says, teenagers, particularly those familiar with computers, realise that the magazine images of their favourite models and movie stars are often lies: they have been air-brushed and digitally modified, such as the February GQ cover of Kate Winslet.
Ruth and Debbie Bronstein, 21 and 19, have grown up in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, but never doubted the allure of their own Rubenesque bodies.
Two years ago Ruth had liposuction treatment on her thighs - "balloons," she calls them - to her family's fury, and now, as they resume their natural shape, she admits that she regrets the operation.
Both young women cheerfully agree that they have always been "boy magnets", and they open their thick winter coats with glee to reveal deep cleavages. "The thing is," explains Debbie, "that our Mom is just like us, and believe me, she has kept Dad hot and devoted for a long long time."
Regards, Ivan
I bruise easily. Skinny wimmin are totally unacceptable
Marilyn Monroe was a totally untoned size 14, and probably the sexiest woman of the 20th century
Regards, Ivan
Regards, Ivan
Ah, but we quickly came up with Goldie Hawn. (She looks a little better with age, I think.)
Sheesh, I hope you guys are happy now.
To repeat a previous question, where's the picture?
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