By Alyssa Asick
Advertising/Business Manager
American society has come a long way as far as body positivity and women’s rights, but the evolution of social media and editing apps have created entirely new issues within societies all over the world. The body positive movement in the United States began around the 1960’s, in the second wave of feminism.
Lew Louderback played a large part in this movement, as he wrote an article named “More People Should Be Fat” in 1967 which directly challenged the diet industry, according to Inpathy Bulletin. In 2020, women are still fat shamed for just existing, and after many years of customers urging brands to be more inclusive, we are finally seeing some results.
In recent years, American Eagle and Aerie have made huge strides as a company and have been trendsetters in the beauty industry with their marketing in becoming more inclusive. For Aerie, they launched their #AerieReal campaign in January of 2014, where they committed to stop using retouched or edited photos for their advertising. Over the last 5 years that they have continued this campaign, and it has subsequently been putting Victoria’s Secret out of business.
As stated in an article by Vox, in November of 2018 an executive member of the company was called out for making transphobic comments in response to why they only included very specific types of women in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show. This obviously caused many women to stop supporting the company, and since then they have closed over 50 stores and have cancelled the 2019 Victoria’s Secret fashion show, after 24 years of running.
Very recently, Victoria’s Secret’s most updated marketing campaign included one plus size model. An article from Parade reported the models name is Ali Tate Cutler, and she is a size 14, which is actually the same size as the average American woman. Sizes 12-18 are also considered “mid-sizes” because most straight size stores only carry up to a size 12 in stores if you are lucky, and plus size stores do not carry many these sizes either, making it very difficult for the average woman to find clothing that fits properly.
It can be extremely harmful to women, but especially to young women who to go to stores and are not able to find anything that fits them properly, especially because the sizing is so inconsistent across every brand, and even within the same brand. This is why it is so important that companies like American Eagle are stepping up and have already created a trend for other big companies to follow.
