American beauty: fat is the new thin

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."

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.

This article is not only hilarious but quite the farce! Look at the above examples given and then compare it to the header 'American Beauty:Fat is the new thin.' First of all the biggest female star in the last 2 years (in terms of popularity and accrued income) is Jennifer Lopez (she was voted as the most 'admired' for 2002 and also had the highest income for a female in Hollywood once all her income ranging from her movies, to her album, to her restaurants, to her clothing and perfume lines were added). And she is listed in the above list as an anti-thesis of hollywood propriety and decorum when it comes to waist lines.

But the fact is J-Lo is not even near fat! She has a full figure ....but having a full figure (especially when pertinent to J-Lo) is a farcry from the full figure most of the population has! J-Lo's figure should nto be listed in an article saying 'fat is the new thin!' She may not have 'heroin-model' chic of lanky limbs that look anorexic, but she is definitely not the poster child of fat.

As for the reference to 'Ms Osbourne' that is even more hilarious than the prior example. Kelly Osbourne, has a figure that is truly representative of the majority of the populace, that is a fact, but Ozzy's cursing daughter is in no way going to change the industry. I personally like her because she packs a lot of spunk (even though i could do without the cursing), and the show she is in (the Osbourne's that show Ozzy's whole family in an hour-long curse fest that has more bleeps per hour than anything else on telly) is a hit (the most popular MTV program ever, meaning it is a huge hit with teenagers).

However tKelly Osbourne will not change the perception of skinny as nice because of the great 'perception-value' attractive packs. And attractive, as pertains to the advertising industry and also the entertainment industry, is basically wrapped up in one phrase: winning the genetic lottery! That means having a nice body, an attractive visage, clear skin, and such stuff! And the funny thing is that although most people do not fall into the above criteria it is still proven to be a great selling tool.

Look at any catalog and look at the models who stand next to cars, wear the clothes, hawk the colognes. Most are slim and attractive (or if not attractive outright then exotic, which has a power of its own). The 'full-figured' catalogs are basically fringe .....and by fringe i do not mean they have a small audience (they are actually quite succesful) ...just nowhere near the 'orthodox' (read:slim) markets.

Basically the idea that slim is attractive has permeated the thinking of most people. It is drilled in the media, in film, in music (if you have a teenage daughter chances are she wants to look like Christina Aguilera or Britney Spears; and if you have a son chances are he would want to date someone who looks like those singers). It is an ideal that has been proliferated and has stuck.

And it continues ....just go to any middleschool and look at the cliques that form and why they form. Chances are the alpha males/females are the physically attractive ones and the ones picked on are not going to be winning beauty contests anytime soon. Which is sad because how far you make it in life is primarily dependent on whether you believe in yourself or not .....but by the time they lave highschool most of the 'downtrodden lot' have basically been drained of any sense of self-worth! They think they look horrid, no one 'loves them,' and that they do not even know why they were born. And then they look at TV and see all the stars, and none look like them (or those that do, like Kelly Osbourne, are basically 'freaks' who only made it on because their dad is an 80s rock legend who bit off the heads of bats and doves in his concerts, and they have a show where they curse every ten seconds).

Saying the image is changing is just a huge farce ....and anyone really looking at it will know that is not the case (for every one Kelly Osbourne i can name a myriad of 'orthodox looking' stars who have bodies that are slim and toned).

The best thing to do is to change the perception of your child to where she sees self-worth based on who she is rather than how close her figure correlates to the Hollywood standard. That seems simple enough but the fact is most kids go to school and just get wasted there. And using Kelly Osbourne as as figurehead for 'hey, she is big and she is on tV' is just asinine ....especially when every other star that kid will see on tV will not look anything like Kelly (or herself for that matter).

65% of the population is over-weight according to statistics, and in highschools the number is even higher! More is needed than Kelly Osbourne and Kate Winslet (what in goodness name is Kate Winslet doing there even ....the last big hit outside Britain was the Titanic around 5 years ago ...anyways i digress).

As for Jennifer Lopez it is hilarious they even included it there! Linking J-Lo's 'full figure' to the 'full figure' most 'normal' people have is like comparing a Ferarri Modena to a Mustang .....they are both cars, and are both sporty and fast, but they are still worlds apart.

Personally i think this is just another article to give what i call 'fake self-esteem' to overweight teens and young adults (other examples of 'fake self-esteem' is when they tell kids not to play games like cops and robbers because those who are slow will feel bad ....it happened in Cali .....or when they make tests easy so that kids do nto fail too much and feel 'inferior').

Here is a picture of the 'full figured' J-Lo. Compare that 'full-figure' with the current standard in Hollywood, and the current standard in the real world (which is allegedly 65% overweight). I would say her figure is closer to Hollywood than to real life.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.