For those of you under a rock, the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch issued a statement to the public that basically says he only wants to see pretty people in his clothes and in his stores.
*insert social (media) explosion here*
When it comes to my blog, I don't normally discuss politics or play devil's advocate, but that's what's going to happen in this post. If you aren't up for that, close out and come back later. I won't judge.
Quite understandably, there was an uprising regarding discrimination based on looks. How dare they say curvy figures aren't welcome in any place!? Not everyone can be drop dead gorgeous, not even everyone wants to be.
There's even a Robin Hood-esque effort called "Fitch the Homeless." I'm all for multitasking--sticking it to the man and helping the less fortunate--but I maintain that if I put forth funds to participate, I'd end up being Fitched myself. Not to mention doing this would feed the company's bottom dollar.
Everyone in our company this year has to go through "Diversity Training," which is basically half day of learning to understand and appreciate differences. The class that I went to had a lady who is roughly the size of a horse jockey. One of the potential offenses the instructor covered was that of weight, namely, treating people differently because they're fat. After that segment was opened to comments, the skinny lady commented that sometimes it upsets her when people tell her she needs to eat something. She does (I've seen her). She just happens to have supermodel metabolism.
Her comments really opened my eyes to the idea that it isn't only fat, ugly people who get discriminated against. Skinny people get it, too. Call it reverse weightism, I guess.
Part of me wants to take one of my prettiest friends and head to the mall to observe reactions to how salespeople react to us in stores that cater to specific sizes. Would a socially-defined beautiful person get the same reaction in Lane Bryant as a socially-defined ugly person would get at Abercrombie & Fitch?
What do you think?
1 comment:
It's amazing how much the world judges each other. Somehow, lately, it seems that every time I go to the mall I'm in my scummiest of outfits (like I'm on my way to the gym). I would say I fit the body type of a lot of these stores (tall-ish and skinny), but just looking like that, I get disgusted looks from the workers just because of how I'm dressed!
Post a Comment