Melissa McCarthy was probably all up in your newsfeed yesterday serving up realness on how the term “plus-size” is an outdated, othering term that makes women feel awful because they can’t fit into clothes the industry deems “normal” sized. “I just think, if you’re going to make women’s clothing, make women’s clothing,” McCarthy tells Refinery29. “Designers that put everyone in categories are over-complicating something that should be easy.”
Styleite reached out to filmmaker Jenny McQuaile who recently launched a kickstarter for Straight/Curve, a forthcoming documentary she’s directing that exposes the hardships of plus-size modeling and urges for the notion of plus-size to be eliminated in modeling, for her feedback on McCarthy’s plus-size slam. Read on for McQuaile’s tidbits of wisdom:
On the term “plus-size”:
“As Melissa says, women do come in all shapes and sizes, and over two thirds of women are considered ‘plus size’. The label is just an indicator, it is used for clients and brands to be able to book models for their clothes. When it translates over into society then we have a problem. It is most definitely not meant to be used to describe the average woman. That is when it could be misconstrued as branding women ‘unworthy’.”
On McCarthy’s call to action:
“I wholeheartedly agree with Melissa when she says designers should just design for women – and stop putting us into boxes and labelling us. This is the message of my documentary Straight/Curve. We are promoting diversity and inclusivity. It is not about straight versus plus, it is about representing women of all shapes and sizes in the media and in fashion. Designers need to start waking up to the fact this is a multi-billion dollar industry. Women are using social media to demand change in the fashion industry and their voices are starting to be heard. Melissa’s line is amazing, but we need the top designers to start paying attention to women – of all shapes and sizes – and start making clothes to fit everyone.”
Hear that, designers? It’s time to give the people what they want aka stylish label-free clothing for all women to rock.
