Mad, mad, mad!

Yes, I am a tight arse. I don’t like to spend money on things that I can get half price somewhere else. So sitting around the dining room table of a friend’s friend who happens to be my hairdresser, I pick up a copy of ‘Shop till You Drop’ that she has conveniently left lying around on the table. Picking up said magazine and pushing aside enough aluminium to contact Mars, I flick silently. Enjoying the smell and feel of the glossy pages, looking at the shoes and outfits that will never fit, but generally being happy that my hairstyle will be akin to something that I could also see on the lollipop women who grace the same pages. It is then I stumble across Megan Moir Pardy’s new column.

Now I should be excited that a fashion magazine has finally incorportated a column from a woman who fits the so called ‘plus size’ heard. Yet after reading her column and looking at her suggestions of clothing at the bottom I am not only disappointed but I am mad. Mad, mad, mad, mad. She suggests that shopping for labels is a possibility for the plus size lady and while I agree, her column was misguided. Women, and fat women at that, do not need to be told that it’s ok to wear harem pants and then paste a picture of designer harem pants that go up to a size 14 in the shopping section. The said mentioned harem pants were tailored at the waist and at the ankle and had no hope of fitting any plus size woman. Not only does the suggestion of putting said pants in the column become offensive, it is downright unhelpful and unrealistic.

As a, let’s call it what it is, fat woman, I don’t want other fat women telling me that I can wear what the skinny girls wear if I put on a kaftan and a pair of harem pants. I want other fat women to give me solutions, labels, retail outlets and an empathetic, entertaining and quirky look at what it’s like to live a ‘fat’ life while still having a passion for clothes and the world that accompanies them. I want to empathise and feel better about the life I lead by reading stories and columns that bridge the gap between skinny and fat women. We should all, fat, skinny and in-between, be able to read those columns and come out feeling better about the way we are.

Being a fat girl does have its own set of unique circumstances. And yes, being a fat girl makes shopping difficult and no, there is nothing better than finding ‘fashion nirvana’ Ms Moir Pardy, but entertain us with the stories of your life and fashion successes rather than telling us to put on a pair of size 14 harem pants so I can feel just like the skinny girls. You should know that we’ll never feel like the skinny girls no matter what size is on our tags. I congratulate you for putting your money where your mouth is and I hope, for my sake as well as yours, the Damn you Alexis is a massive success – because we need more labels. What I don’t need is you telling me that I can be just like those skinny girls if I just put on the same kaftan. A kaftan that they can belt and let flow while I happen to fill it out like a well fitting t-shirt.

Thankyou Shop Till you Drop for acknowledging that we fat girls have a disposable income and we want to shop and for letting one of us speak. Now let’s make sure that what we say actually means something.