Nickey Robo

Dress and jacket: vintage

Tights: Hue

Boots: Timberland

Scarf: Presence in Chicago

The polyester dress and wool jacket were so nice and warm for biking to work.

Fatshion February day 2

Romper: Handmade! From this pattern.

Sweater: Clothing swap

Boots: Doc Martens

fixedwhilefeminist:

Please stop body shaming. ALL of these bodies are beautiful.

Shaming someone because they are thin does not make it better than shaming someone because they are fat or curvy.

Everyone should be allowed the right to love exactly how they were created unless they want to change it themselves and for themselves.

Firstly, I agree with the above sentiment that let’s not body shame anyone, thin or, uh, less thin. Hating is never a good way to make yourself feel better about yourself. Secondly, let’s remember that the women on the bottom certainly don’t have bodies that are significantly more attainable for the average woman. (Sidenote: People love to mention that Marilyn Monroe was a size 14. Back in the 50’s a 14 was actually the bottom of the size range for most adult women’s clothing, it’s close to a modern 4 or 6.)

However, I do think it’s a valid question- how did the above become our beauty ideal? I know it’s meant as rhetorical, but I think it’s worth pondering. What changed in American culture? I blame capitalism.

It is financially beneficial to present less and less attainable bodies. While most of us probably won’t ever look like Marilyn or Elizabeth, it’s not completely out of the realm of possibility. But, as I mentioned in a previous post, Jennifer Aniston (who might not even be as thin as the women on the top) has a body so thin that less than 3.7% of American women are that thin. The less attainable the bodies we idolize, the more we buy. We buy diet pills, we buy expensive low calorie food, we buy plastic surgery, we buy personal trainers, we buy clothes we can’t fit in hopes we one day will, we buy magazines and books full of diet tips, we buy trips to weight loss centers, we buy exercise videos, we buy cleanses, we buy and buy and buy and we make thinness very, very profitable. We buy into an idea, and then we buy with our dollars, even though there has never been a single diet proven to make you lose weight and keep it off over the long term.

Additionally, every single one of these women made being hot her job. If your income depended on being as beautiful as possible, and you could work out with a personal trainer every day and have a personal chef cook you each meal, I bet you’d look unbelievably good, too. Just like Marilyn, I’m pretty good at the things I am paid to do, too.

So that’s why I think being size positive is so radical, and it’s heart, an anti-capitalist act. True health is not particularly profitable. You can exercise quite well for free. Eating whole foods that are good for you are cheaper than processed crap. There are so many less things to spend money on when you just decide to love yourself!

Happy Holidays from Nickey Robo!

Dear American Apparel,

In the photo above I am wearing a size small men’s shirt and a size XL women’s skirt that I purchased at your store. Wait, let me start at the beginning.

I bought your Groupon. Despite my misgiving about your chronically sexual-harassing CEO, your treatment of your workers, and your objectifying advertising (not to mention some of your bizarrely ugly products). I’m a sucker for a deal, and, sadly, in the age of international sweatshops, your company is kind of the least bad option for mass-produced clothing. I have no need for overpriced pleated pants, but what girl can’t use some extra tights or cute hoodies?

I’m somewhere between a size 12 and a 16 (depending on the brand), and that’s at the tippy-top of your size range. But you recently did an offensively over-the-top campaign about the fact that more of your clothing would be available in an XL. I don’t think I need to say too much about this campaign, as Nancy Upton did a great job of saying all that needed to be said about it. So, because no publicity is bad publicity, I looked at Nancy’s pictures of herself in a bath of ranch dressing and thought, “hey, maybe they’ll finally be making that mini dress I love in my size now!”

Well, firstly, that mini dress still only goes up to a Large, and while I was able to squeeze into it, it wasn’t exactly flattering. I did find this dress in an XL, but I swear to god, it was like a size 6 or 8 at any other store. I barely squeezed it over my head. I looked like a fucking sausage in a zig-zag casing. I was even a little afraid the waifish girls working there (who were super nice, by the way, I am not talking trash on them!) would force me to buy it because I’d stretched it out too much.

I did finally find a skirt that was cute, came in an XL, is comfortable, and wasn’t too expensive (why can’t you make more stuff like this!?). But my groupon was for $100 and I still had a bunch of dough to spend. At least in womenswear, It seems you have strayed so far from your original merchandise of simple t-shirts and leggings that it is almost impossible to find normal clothing for an adult. I am completely befuddled by how far off the deep end you have gone in making weird replicas of the ugliest 90’s fashion. (I mean, where does one even wear see through harem pants? What do you put underneath them? Is that supposed to be sexy?)

So after 45 minutes of trying on ill-fitting clothing, I felt a little demoralized. Maybe I would just get a ton of tights and underwear. Had this groupon been a colossal waste of money? (Probably.) Then the denim shirts in the men’s section caught my eye. Yes! I’ve been searching for a denim shirt! I looked at them and wondered, what size should I try on? The small looked surprisingly roomy. I tried it on. It fit, it looked great, I bought it.

That’s the point of this story. Your sizing is just so weird. I am a small in men’s and an XL in women’s. It would be one thing if everything came in teeny tiny sizes. Fine, cater to only thin people, I don’t care. I know I will never be able to buy pants at Forever 21 because everything is small, so I just don’t try. But your sizing is wildly inconsistent between pieces and sections. I mean, I have huge boobs, so a man with the same chest size as me is kind of a thick dude- so shouldn’t the small be a little smaller? I’m glad I found a nice shirt, but I don’t understand what the reasoning behind your sizing is.

I’m a seamstress, and I know it’s really hard to mass-produce clothes that will fit very many people. But most of your clothing is knitwear! It’s stretchy! All you have to do is make it a little bit bigger and you’ve accommodated way more sizes of people! Why is that hard!?

I know bankruptcy is complicated and there are a thousand reasons you all are so close to going under. I’m willing to bet, though, that your complete inability to offer a consistent product that can be worn by a wide range of sizes is not helping.

Sincerely,

Nickey Robo