Does size matter?

By Errol Hendrickse

Throughout history the female form has been celebrated as the one of the most beautiful things: we have pagan rituals that pay homage to the wonder of femininity, Christian denominations that worship the mother of Christ, we call the very ground our food is grown from Mother Earth but yet today we find ourselves finding fault with women of a certain size and shape.

I look through history at how the female body has been portrayed and notice that in the amazing pieces of art where women are the main subjects, they all show the female form to be voluptuous and curvy, full and sexual. Lumps and bumps in places where there should be lumps and bumps. The amazing hourglass figure that gives the viewer a sense comfort, softness, sensuality, joy, love and a vessel of life-giving! Yet today we choose to strip a woman of all of this, to design clothing that is suited only for certain sizes. We idolise figures that are primarily products of marketing. So I ask myself the question — what is wrong with the fuller figure?

Now don’t get me wrong, there is a big difference between obese and a fuller figure. Let’s take Sophie Dahl as an example. Now regardless of the fact that she is the granddaughter of Roald Dahl, she became a household name as a plus-size model for Vivienne Westwood. Gracing the runways of London, Paris and New York weighing in at a whopping size 16. She then went on to gain worldwide notoriety by posing nude for YSL’s Opium fragrance. I have never seen Sophie — we’re on a first-name basis — looking so beautiful. Then all of a sudden she loses the weight in order to “fit in” to the model stereotype, going down to an unhealthy size 10. To me this confirmed to plus-size women that it’s wrong to be plus size because clearly even though Miss Dahl became famous for being a size 16, she turned her back on the many women who got solace from the fact that larger women could still be represented within a skinny fashion industry.

Sophie Dahl

A general impression seems to be that plus-size women don’t look after themselves and are lazy, hence they are the size they are, and that they can’t look elegant. Well what a load of rubbish. I have a very dear friend in London who, let me tell you, is a curvy size 18 — you have never in your life met a bigger girly girl than Uschi. As a plus size she epitomises a real voluptuous woman and dresses like a goddess. It is very seldom that you will find Uschi out of a pair of 4-inch heels, beautiful stylish blouses and stunning trousers that show off her figure, her make-up applied to perfection, hair and skin immaculately groomed. She works out, really watches her diet and she puts in 10-hour days at her job. Now to me this is not a lazy woman. She is just plus and not afraid of being that — in fact Uschi is proud of who she is. It has taken her a long time, but Uschi always says: “Being plus does not mean having to say I’m sorry for the size I am.”

I agree with this. Smaller women are always complaining about their weight or size and never seem to be happy with themselves. In my eyes Uschi is one of the most stunning women I have ever met, oozing a self-confidence and sexuality that just radiates, people can’t help being attracted to that.

Uschi
Uschi

This brings to mind a pop sensation in the UK at the moment called Beth Ditto — now Beth is very much a plus-size girl and has recently brought out her own clothing label working with the designers from the clothes store Evans. The great thing about this range is it is young and hip. What I really loved about Beth is she was quoted as saying: “ Why when designers design for plus ranges do they still think our waists sit were skinny people’s waists sit? Ours sit under our breasts.” So plus-size women according to designers are a size 12 and down, just with more fabric. NO — the cuts, fits and lines are different, the curves follow the body rather than just fall or drape.

If we look at figures in the 40s and 50s, look at how fashion brought out the female form without having to starve yourself to an inch of your life. The women were curvy and yet still very sexy. One Hollywood star that still carries this kind of figure is the amazing Kate Winslet. Another example is Nigella Lawson, who for many years in a row has been nominated as one of Britain’s sexiest women and let me tell you she is a size 18. These women have not prostituted their femininity in order to achieve Twiggydom and have still become feminist icons. We have almost made it taboo to be plus or to have a fuller figure and have created a multibillion-rand cosmetic surgery industry which allows us to suck, tuck and pluck every inch of our bodies in order to achieve that skinny look. I just don’t understand it.

What I really do not understand is that we categorise women into “petite”, “regular” and “plus” sizes when all you are is a size. This on its own is boxing women into feeling they belong to one group or another, rather than just being a certain body size or shape!

So it seems that even in a world where all types of prejudice are frowned upon (except in South Africa!) we still choose to ignore the fact that women are not all movie stars and TV actresses living with that constant “the camera puts on 10 pounds” theory, which for the record it does. And yet we paint plus size with the most horrid of brushes ie that it is not socially acceptable. I think plus-size women need to stand up and be counted because our designers are missing a massive point, and that is our South African women are the most beautiful in the world. They have spirit, they have love, they have every element of a “real woman”. They have bodies — bodies that are full and rounded and it’s time we got them out of the dreaded kaftan and started designing clothing for the larger woman and celebrating the magnificence of how women should look rather than how we would like them to look!