Like what happens to a lot of movements that become more mainstream, the body positivity movement has been losing more and more of its meaning. Many fashion brands and companies have taken what’s meant to be a movement based on fat acceptance centering plus sized and disabled women and have turned it into a marketing strategy to satisfy their bottom line.
Case in point, this new collection of sweatshirts from Revolve that used a skinny model to “reclaim” fat-shaming.
On Wednesday, Revolve put up pictures of a sweatshirt on their retail for sale. Sitting smack in the center of the sweatshirt was a quote apparently taken from model Paloma Elsesser’s instagram that read:”Being Fat is Not Beautiful It’s an Excuse.”
British artist and social activist Florence Given first brought light to the clothing item on her instagram where she posted screenshots of the “Paloma Sweatshirt in Grey.” Her post got pulled down from instagram for somehow violating community guidelines, but not before plus-size activists took to twitter to call out the brand.
https://twitter.com/Nabela/status/1040025656871079936
In another series of screenshots posted to Given’s instagram account, the brand behind the sweatshirts, LPA, revealed that the piece was just one part of a campaign created in part by writer and show runner Lena Dunham.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BnoYbfenDnC/?taken-by=florencegiven
In her own instagram post, Dunham explained that the whole point of the collection was to shine light on the sort of abuse women receive from internet trolls. Each of the sweatshirts came with a comment made against an internet influencer alongside their social media handle. Some of said comments included other anti-feminist phrase like “Slut feminist nightmare” and “Horrible product of modern feminism.”
LPA later on issued their own apology to instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bno–tCFsXX/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Both LPA and Dunham blamed Revolve for creating the controversy. The two pointed out that by choosing a skinny model to showcase the sweatshirt, the retailer completely erased the context that went behind it. If anything, all that Revolve did was reveal how this campaign could never work.
If context is such a crucial part of this collection, there’s really no way for it to be kept beyond the pr pictures LPA and Dunham had planned. With the way the sweatshirts were designed, there’s no way they wouldn’t have been taken at face value. The two didn’t even consider crossing out the quote to show that it’s not true. If someone had bought it and worn it around, anyone would think they agreed with the comment on the sweatshirt, because why else would they have worn it. That’s just how statement clothes work.
The worst thing about this collection is the fact that the people who the comment targets wouldn’t even be able to reclaim it by wearing it. Plus size women can’t even shop at the store. None of Revolves clothes go larger than a size xl.
In their own response on instagram, the retailer said that their intention had been only to “empower all women.” Really, this was just their attempt at capitalizing off of a group they don’t care enough about to cater to in the first place.
Featured Image via Revolve
Glamdom 