Fashioning Fat: Inside Plus-Size Modeling

by Amanda M. Czerniawski

  7. Reported in 2006a; Greenberg 2006.

  8. Reported in Burling 2006.

  9. Reported in Monget 2006.

  10. See 2004b.

  11. Reported in Kovanis 2006. See Lane Bryant’s corporate website at http://www.ascenaretail.com/lanebryant.jsp.

  12. See Cohen 2013.

  13. Reported in Gogoi 2006; Kovanis 2006; Mikus 2006; Yao 2006.

  14. Reported in Li 2012.

  15. Ibid.

  16. Ibid.; Yao 2006.

  17. Reported in Chandler 2006.

  18. Reported in Li 2012.

  19. Reported in Mikus 2006.

  20. Reported in Li 2012.

  21. Reported in Amador 2006.

  22. Reported in Seckler 2003.

  23. Reported in 2004a.

  24. Reported in Seckler 2003.

  25. Reported in Sarkisian-Miller 2006.

  26. Reported in Denizet-Lewis 2006.

  27. Reported in Guo 2013.

  28. Reported in Daswani 2004.

  29. Reported in Li 2012.

  30. Reported in Yadegaran McClatchy 2006.

  31. Reported in Bloomfield 1989a, 1989b.

  32. Reported in Bloomfield 1989a.

  33. Reported in D’Innocenzio 1992.

  34. Reported in Krupnick 2013.

  35. Reported in Simon 1995.

  36. Reported in D’Innocenzio 1997.

  37. Reported in D’Innocenzio 1994.

  38. Reported in Fung 2000.

  39. Ibid.

  40. Reported in Lee 1998.

  41. Ibid.

  42. Reported in Wilson 1997.

  43. Reported in Simon 1995.

  44. Reported in Amador 2007.

  45. Reported in Jones 2007.

  46. Reported in Sarkisian-Miller 2006.

  47. Reported in Li 2012.

  48. Reported in Simon 1995.

  49. Reported in Greenberg 2005.

  50. Reported in Li 2012.

  51. Reported in McCall 2013b.

  52. Reported in Black 2013.

  53. See http://www.luscious-plus-lingerie.com/aboutus.sc.

  54. Gruys 2012, p. 487.

  55. Ibid., p. 494.

  56. See Contrino 2007a, 2007b; Diadul 2007.

  57. See http://www.hipsandcurves.com/about-us.

  58. See Hips and Curves 2006, 2009.

  59. See http://www.curvycouture.com.

  60. See http://www.luscious-plus-lingerie.com/aboutus.sc.

  61. Murray 2005b, p. 161.

  NOTES TO CHAPTER 7

  1. Blum 2003, p. 101.

  2. See Bakhtin 2005.

  3. Baudrillard 2005, pp. 278–79.

  4. Ibid., p. 278.

  5. This commercial persona of the plus-size woman is “a construction that performs the cultural work of personifying a market relation by giving a face and personality to a market category,” in other words, the consumer in the abstract. See Cook 2004; Cook and Kaiser 2004, p. 209.

  6. Crossley 2004, pp. 40–41.

  7. Goffman 1963b, p. 115.

  8. Models inhabit the extremes in weight distribution—the ultra-skinny and the fat. Both a runway and plus-size model are strategically deviant. While a high-fashion runway model is deviant because of her extreme thinness and propensity to engage in disordered eating behaviors, she is generally not stigmatized because thinness is a master status. She stands out for her lack of fat, while the plus-size model stands out because of her fat.

  9. Reported in Jones 2006.

  10. Reported in 2006b.

  11. Reported in 2007; Heckle 2007.

  12. Reported in Johnson 2007.

  13. Reported in Wilson 2012.

  14. Reported in Olins 2008.

  15. Reported in Figueroa-Jones 2007.

  16. See Hamilton et al. 2007; Kilbourne 1999; Knauss et al. 2008; Wolf 1992.

  17. Their work is no different from any other model of any size in fashion. All models must control and discipline their bodies.

  REFERENCES

  2004a. “Lagerfeld’s High Street Split.” Vogue, November 18, 2004, http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2004/11/18/lagerfelds-high-street-split. Accessed March 5, 2013.

  2004b. “Lane Bryant, Inc.” International Directory of Company Histories, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Lane-Bryant-Inc-Company-History.html. Accessed August 2, 2008.

  2006a. “As Bustlines Expand, 1st Plus-Size-Only Lingerie Store Opens: Plus-Size Women Now Have a Lingerie Boutique All Their Own.” June 12, 2006, http://www.ereleases.com/pr/as-bustlines-expand-1st-plussizeonly-lingerie-store-opens-7571. Accessed March 5, 2013.

  2006b. “Brazil Model Who Battled Anorexia Dies.” Washington Post, November 16, 2006, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/16/AR2006111601392.html. Accessed March 15, 2013.

  2006c. “Plus-Size Model Crystal Renn Speaks About Overcoming Anorexia to Become a Plus-Size Model.” NBC News Transcripts, September 4, 2006, LexisNexis Academic. Web. Accessed February 12, 2013.

  2006d. “Where Size 0 Doesn’t Make the Cut.” New York Times, September 22, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/22/opinion/22fri4.html?_r=0. Accessed October 23, 2013.

  2007. “Spain Bans Skinny Sizes on Mannequins.” Associated Press, March 13, 2007, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17596139/#.UUPTqa7ry4I. Accessed March 15, 2013.

  2008. “Ruslana Korshunova, Supermodel, Dies In Fall.” Huffington Post, June 28, 2008, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/28/ruslana-korshunova-superm_n_109792.html. Accessed November 26, 2013.

  2009. “Daul Kim Dead: 20-Year-Old Model Found Hanged In Paris Apartment.” Huffington Post, November 20, 2009, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/20/daul-kim-dead-20-year-old_n_364350.html. Accessed November 27, 2013.

  2010. “Lingerie Ads Nixed Due to Plus-Sized Model?” CBS News, April 26, 2010, http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-3480_162-6428418.html. Accessed March 5, 2013.

  Adams, Rebecca. 2013. “Equity Model Code of Conduct Signed By British Vogue.” Huffington Post, April 9, 2013, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/equity-model-code-of-conduct-british-vogue_n_3045688.html. Accessed November 27, 2013.

  Amador, Valery. 2006. “Plus Model Magazine Launches 2nd Issue with Curvy Cover Model Angellika.” PLUS Model Magazine, September 1, 2006, http://www.plus-model-mag.com/2006/09/plus-model-magazine-launches-2nd-issue-with-curvy-cover-model-angellika/. Accessed February 12, 2013.

  ——–. 2007. “Cherished Woman Offers Stylish Plus Size Clothing.” PLUS Model Magazine, March 1, 2007, http://www.plusmodelmag.com/General/plus-model-magazine-article-detail.asp?article-id=704723368. Accessed March 5, 2013.

  Asbill, D. Lacy. 2009. ““I’m Allowed to Be a Sexual Being”: The Distinctive Social Conditions of the Fat Burlesque Stage.” In The Fat Studies Reader, edited by Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay, 299–304. New York: New York University Press.

  Bakhtin, Mikhail. 2005. “The Grotesque Image of the Body and Its Sources.” In The Body: A Reader, edited by Mariam Fraser and Monica Greco, 92–95. London; New York: Routledge.

  Banner, Lois W. 1983. American Beauty. New York: Knopf, Distributed by Random House.

  Bartky, Sandra. 1988. “Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization of Patriarchal Power.” In Feminism and Foucault: Paths of Resistance, edited by Lee Quinby and Irene Diamond, 61–86. Boston: Northeastern University Press.

  Baudrillard, Jean. 2005. “The Finest Consumer Object.” In The Body: A Reader, edited by Mariam Fraser and Monica Greco, 277–82. London; New York: Routledge.

  Becker, Anne E. 1995. Body, Self, and Society: The View from Fiji. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

  Becker, Howard Saul. 1964. The Other Side: Perspectives on Deviance. New York: Free Press.

  Bell, Crystal. 2011. “‘Big Sexy’ Exclusive Interview: Cast of TLC’s ‘Big Sexy’ Talk Being Plus-Sized in a Skinny Girl’s Fashion World.” Huffington Post, September 13, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/13/big-sexy-exclusive-interview-tlc_n_960861.html. Accessed No
vember 12, 2011.

  Bernstein, Beth and Matilda St. John. 2009. “The Roseanne Benedict Arnolds: How Fat Women Are Betrayed by Their Celebrity Icons.” In The Fat Studies Reader, edited by Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay, 263–70. New York: New York University Press.

  Black, Liz. 2013. “Meet The First Plus-Size Designer To Show At NYFW.” Refinery29, August 31, 2013, http://www.refinery29.com/2013/08/52328/cabiria-plus-size-shownyfw#page-1. Accessed January 10, 2014.

  Bloomfield, Judy. 1989a. “Plus Size Designers Group Created.” Women’s Wear Daily 158, 21: 13.

  ——–. 1989b. “Plus Size Show Launched to 250 at Bloomingdale’s.” Women’s Wear Daily 158, 50: 36.

  Blum, Virginia L. 2003. Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Bordo, Susan. 1993. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Bourdieu, Pierre. 1984. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  ——–. 2000. Pascalian Meditations. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

  ——–. 2001. Masculine Domination. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

  Braziel, Jana Evans and Kathleen LeBesco. 2001. Bodies Out of Bounds: Fatness and Transgression. Berkeley: University of California Press.

  Brumberg, Joan Jacobs. 1997. The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. New York: Random House.

  Budgeon, Shelley. 2003. “Identity as an Embodied Event.” Body & Society 9: 35–55.

  Burling, Stacey. 2006. “Risque Business: New Lane Bryant Store at King of Prussia Mall.” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 22, 2006, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-153158640.html. Accessed March 5, 2013.

  Burns-Ardolino, Wendy A. 2009. “Jiggle in My Walk: The Iconic Power of the “Big Butt” in American Pop Culture.” In The Fat Studies Reader, edited by Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay, 271–79. New York: New York University Press.

  Butler, Judith. 1988. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” Theatre Journal 40, 4: 519–31.

  Cardellino, Carly. 2013. “World’s Top Modeling Agency Now Casting Talent Regardless of Size, Race, and Age.” Cosmopolitan, November 17, 2013, http://www.cosmopolitan.com/celebrity/news/img-models-integrates-all-talent. Accessed November 23, 2013.

  Chandler, Susan. 2006. “Retailers Are Sizing Up an Overlooked Market: Department Stores and Boutiques Devote More Choices, Attention to Plus-Size Shoppers.” Chicago Tribune, May 28, 2006, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2006-05-28/business/0605280036_1_plus-size-market-larger-sizes-retailers/. Accessed March 5, 2013.

  Chernikoff, Leah. 2011. “Crystal Renn Is Not a Size Two Despite What Her Ford Model Card Says.” Fashionista, January 31, 2011, http://fashionista.com/2011/01/crystal-renn-is-not-a-size-two-despite-what-her-ford-model-card-says/. Accessed February 11, 2013.

  ——–. 2013. “First Modeling Agency Devoted to Girls of All Sizes Sets Up Shop in NYC.” Fashionista, July, 18, 2013, http://fashionista.com/2013/07/first-modeling-agency-devoted-to-girls-of-all-sizes-sets-up-shop-in-nyc/. Accessed November 2, 2013.

  Chernin, Kim. 1981. The Obsession: Reflections on the Tyranny of Slenderness. New York: Harper & Row.

  Cohen, Marshal. 2013. “Put a Fork In It. Signs The Recession Is Finally Behind Us.” NPD Group Blog, July 11, 2013, https://www.npdgroupblog.com/put-a-fork-in-it-signs-the-recession-is-finally-behind-us/#.UredUPZtlhA. Accessed December 22, 2013.

  Collins, Lauren. 2008. “Pixel Perfect: Pascal Dangin’s Virtual Reality.” New Yorker, May 12, 2008, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/05/12/080512fa_fact_collins. Accessed June 2, 2008.

  Conti, Samantha. 2007. “British Models Join Actors’ Equity Union.” Women’s Wear Daily, December 11, 2007, http://www.wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/british-models-join-actors-equity-union-473813. Accessed November 27, 2013.

  Contrino, Tom. 2007a. “Midnight Magic.” United Retail Incorporated, http://www.avenue.com. Accessed December 9, 2008.

  ——–. 2007b. “Moonlit Moments.” United Retail Incorporated, http://www.avenue.com. Accessed December 9, 2008.

  Cook, Daniel Thomas. 2004. The Commodification of Childhood: The Children’s Clothing Industry and the Rise of the Child Consumer. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

  Cook, Daniel Thomas and Susan B. Kaiser. 2004. “Betwixt and Be Tween: Age Ambiguity and the Sexualization of the Female Consuming Subject.” Journal of Consumer Culture 4: 203–27.

  Cooper, Charlotte. 1998. Fat and Proud: The Politics of Size. London: Women’s Press.

  Crosnoe, Robert. 2007. “Gender, Obesity, and Education.” Sociology of Education 80, 3: 241–60.

  Crossley, Nick. 2001. The Social Body: Habit, Identity and Desire. London: Sage.

  ——–. 2004. “The Circuit Trainer’s Habitus: Reflexive Body Techniques and the Sociality of the Workout.” Body & Society 10, 1: 37–69.

  Czerniawski, Amanda M. 2007. “From Average to Ideal: The Evolution of the Height and Weight Table in the United States, 1836–1943.” Social Science History 31, 2: 273–96.

  ——–. 2010. “Commentary: Symonds’ Curious Fat Fact.” International Journal of Epidemiology 39: 959–63.

  ——–. 2012. “Disciplining Corpulence: The Case of Plus-Size Fashion Models.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 41, 2: 3–29.

  Daswani, Kavita. 2004. “A Growing Market: After Adding Up the Benefits, Specialty Retailers Are Expanding into the Plus-Size Category.” Women’s Wear Daily, September 29: 72S.

  Davis, Kathy. 1995. Reshaping the Female Body: The Dilemma of Cosmetic Surgery. New York: Routledge.

  Dean, Deborah. 2003. “If Women Actors Were Working . . .” Media, Culture & Society 25: 527–41.

  ——–. 2005. “Recruiting a Self: Women Performers and Aesthetic Labour.” Work, Employment and Society 19, 4: 761–74.

  ——–. 2013. Performing Ourselves: Actors, Social Stratification and Work. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

  Denizet-Lewis, Benoit. 2006. “The Man behind Abercrombie & Fitch.” Salon, January 24, 2006, http://www.salon.com/2006/01/24/jeffries/. Accessed December 22, 2013.

  Deurenberg, P., M. Yap, and W. A. Van Staveren. 1998. “Body Mass Index and Percent Body Fat: A Meta Analysis Among Different Ethnic Groups.” International Journal of Obesity and Related Metabolic Disorders 22, 12: 1164–71.

  Diadul, Robert. 2007. “Wild Nights.” United Retail Incorporated, http://www.avenue.com. Accessed December 9, 2008.

  Diluna, Amy. 2010. “Sick World Where Size 4 Is Too Fat.” Daily News, February 16, 2010, http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/fashion/size-4-fashion-week-model-coco-rocha-21-latest-women-considered-fat-industry-article-1.195616. Accessed January 5, 2011.

  D’Innocenzio, Anne. 1992. “Emphasis on Super-Sizes, Merger Boost Catherines’ Plus-Size Share.” Women’s Wear Daily, October 28, 1992: 30.

  ——–. 1994. “Pursuing a Fashion Customer.” Women’s Wear Daily, October 6, 1994: 8.

  ——–. 1997. “A New Attitude: Plus-Size Pride.” Women’s Wear Daily, August 20, 1997: 10.

  ——–. 1998. “Emme: A Model of Self-Esteem.” Women’s Wear Daily, March 5, 1998: 9.

  Dolnick, Sam. 2011. “Ethnic Differences Emerge in Plastic Surgery.” New York Times, February 18, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/nyregion/19plastic.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0. Accessed February 19, 2011.

  Douglas, Mary. 2005. “The Two Bodies.” In The Body: A Reader, edited by Mariam Fraser and Monica Greco, 78–81. London; New York: Routledge.

  Eaton, D. K., R. Lowry, et al. 2005. “Associations of Body Mass Index and Perceived Weight with Suicide Ideation and Suicide Attempts Among US High School Students.” Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine 159, 6: 513–19.

  Eliasoph, Nina. 2005. “Theorizing from the Neck Down: Why Social Research Must Understand Bodies Acting in Real Space and Time (and Why It’s
So Hard to Spell Out What We Learn from This).” Qualitative Sociology 28, 2: 159–69.

  Emery, Debbie. 2012. “Plus Size Women Feel ‘Betrayed and Insulted’ by Crystal Renn’s Startling Slimdown.” Radaronline.com, January 30, 2012, http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2012/01/crystal-renn-s-startling-slimdown-plus-size-women-betrayed. Accessed February 11, 2013.

  Engel, Pamela. 2013. “Women in a Poor West African Country Are Force-Feeding Themselves for Beauty’s Sake.” Businessinsider.com, May 23, 2013, http://www.businessinsider.com/women-force-feeding-in-mauritania-2013-5?op=1#ixzz2ezMG6Vb5. Accessed September 15, 2013.

  Entwistle, Joanne. 2002. “The Aesthetic Economy: The Production of Value in the Field of Fashion Modelling.” Journal of Consumer Culture 2, 3: 317–39.

  Entwistle, Joanne and Elizabeth Wissinger. 2006. “Keeping Up Appearances: Aesthetic Labour in the Fashion Modelling Industries of London and New York.” Sociological Review 54, 4: 774–94.

  Farrell, Amy Erdman. 2011. Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture. New York: New York University Press.

  Figueroa-Jones, Maddy. 2007. “Velvet D’amour Opens Up on Her Curvy Life and Controversies.” PLUS Model Magazine, March 1, 2007, http://www.plusmodelmag.com/General/plus-model-magazine-article-detail.asp?article-id=404880624. Accessed March 15, 2013.

  Foucault, Michel. 1975. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books.

  Frost, Liz. 2005. “Theorizing the Young Woman in the Body.” Body & Society 11, 1: 63–85.

  Fung, Shirliey. 2000. “Plus Sizes: A Largely Untapped Area.” Women’s Wear Daily, September 20, 2000: 18.

  Geertz, Clifford. 1988. Works and Lives: The Anthropologist as Author. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

  Germov, John and Lauren Williams. 1999. “Dieting Women: Self-Surveillance and the Body Panopticon.” In Weighty Issues: Fatness and Thinness as Social Problems, edited by Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer, 117–32. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter.

  Giddens, Anthony. 1991. Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modern Age. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

  Gilman, Sander L. 2008. Fat: A Cultural History of Obesity. Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity.

  Giovanelli, Dina and Stephen Ostertag. 2009. “Controlling the Body: Media Representations, Body Size, and Self-Discipline.” In The Fat Studies Reader, edited by Esther Rothblum and Sondra Solovay, 289–96. New York: New York University Press.