Where Feminism and Fat Meet

You must be thin to be in...Brandy Melville clothing. 
Image by sattva via freedigitalphotos.net

Except, and here’s the thing – it’s not really about being fat.  It’s about being human.

People are all different shapes and sizes.  For example, right now, I’m a larger size and a larger shape.  But, once upon a time, I weighed in at about 100 pounds.  And even then, I was a size 5.  It’s the way I’m made, the way my body does things.  I’m short and squat.  Even when I’m thin, I’m short and squat.

So when I read about a store called ‘Brandy Melville’ that only sells size small (which is really, really small), I was kind of displeased with their business model.  They sell small (and “one size,” which is really just another word for small in their store), and it has only 18 stores.  Yet somehow it’s growing in popularity, and it’s insane. 

Huffington Post points out that their only ‘skinny jeans’ require a 25 inch waist, which is commonly the size for 0 or 2.  However, according to statistics in the U.S., the average 16-year-old girl has a 31 inch waist. 

Clearly, Brandy Melville doesn’t care about the average.  They are looking for separating the skinny from the “fat,” and their definition of “fat” is a scary one.

Texas A&M published a study in 2013 that stated that more than 50% of teen girls “use unhealthy weight control behaviors, like skipping meals, fasting or vomiting.”

And Brandy Melville’s response – from one of their female executives – pointed out while girls may not be able to fit their clothes, they can still buy an accessory.

Ummm, thanks.  But seriously, no fucking thanks. 

Do you know what you’re doing, Brandy Melville?

Do you care?

HuffPost included a number of tweets at the bottom of their article that I find heartbreaking in the worst possible ways. 

Girls who state

-          Brandy Melville makes me feel fat

-          How to feel fat: brandy melville jeans

-          im too fat for brandy melville and it breaks my heart

-          crying bc too fat to fit into brandy melville.. sigh

What’s heartbreaking about it?

Because you can almost feel the eating disorders coming on.  The girls who feel bad about being “fat” because they aren’t in a size 0.  The girls who are told, “hey, you can buy a bag because you’re not ‘good enough’ to buy clothes.”

The judgment that this company is causing is damaging.  It is causing these girls serious distress.  And while I might not think that it should – while I think that they should reject the company and its horrible methods of creating a clique based purely on body type – that isn’t the point.  The point is that the company knows what it’s doing.  It knows the harm it is doing to these girls and their self esteem.  And it doesn’t give a shit because it cares about profit.

So why do I find this a feminist issue?

Because we’re all women.  And we need to stop judging ourselves and each other.  And we need to stop making businesses that exist purely to judge us.

So fuck you,  Brandy Melville.  Fuck you and the ‘accessories’ you’re offering as consolation prizes to all of us ‘fatties’ who have a waist bigger than 25 inches.