The idea for our September issue began the way any great conversation with friends happens: over wine. I had recently moved from a size 10 or 12 into plus sizes and was bitching to my colleagues about the hell that was shopping now. It was the first time I'd really—honestly—opened up to anyone about my 60-pound weight gain. In the few times I had offhandedly mentioned it to people, the conversation usually went something along the lines of, "Don't worry, you'll lose it!" or, "You look great!" Others would quickly change the subject.
Three rosés in, I admitted to my coworkers that I was sick of feeling like size was a four-letter word. After months of following plus-size influencers and body-positive activists on Instagram, I was finally feeling OK with my size. These women were happy with—and proud of!—their bodies, and they unabashedly discussed the challenges that came with being a plus-size woman. I wanted to be one of them. But everyone else, outside that online community I'd been lurking in, didn't seem like they wanted to participate; either because we've been conditioned to think that commenting on other women's weight—especially if it's not weight loss—is unacceptable or because they too had hangups but weren't ready to talk about them.
And so The "F" Word was born.
If you haven't caught on, the F stands for "fat." Yes, fat, and I don't mean that pejoratively. Women in the body-positive space are reclaiming the term for what it is, simply an adjective that describes their physical attributes, just the way you'd talk about someone who is thin. No longer is it—or should it be—a dirty word, the other F-word.
All week long we'll be digging into the various issues women have to navigate when they live in bigger bodies—starting, obviously, with fashion. It's difficult to feel good in your body when you don't have the clothes to express yourself the way you want to be seen, which the 40 people I spoke with for our feature "The Fashion Industry Has a Plus-Size Problem" will tell you all about. For three months I sat down with models, editors, influencers, photographers, and designers to have a candid talk about the real frustrations and elations plus women have with the fashion industry as it stands today.
With each conversation, it became more clear it's not just a visibility issue with ad campaigns or a need for more shopping options in stores (although those are two vastly huge problems). The need for more plus-size discourse goes all the way to the top. Not just in boardrooms, where execs make calls on how to price clothing for plus-size women (a controversy we explore called the "Fat Tax") but also with venture capital funding so more plus-size women can actually make the pieces we want to wear.
Speaking of cool clothes, tomorrow we'll be unveiling our first-ever Plus-Size Fashion Awards. In an ideal world—hell, even one where designers would just like to make money—we wouldn't have the need to celebrate brands that are doing plus right. But until that point, we have this shopping resource, which was expertly curated by 10 plus-size fashion experts (our awards judges) and informed by a survey that more than 1,300 readers weighed in on.
Also, that term: plus size. As we were planning this package, we had a lot of conversations around whether we should take a stand and abolish the word. Women have argued for years that it makes no sense to ostracize what is actually the majority of shoppers; 68% of women in the U.S. today wear a size 14 or above.
In the past I too thought the term was isolating. But you know what's more isolating than being labeled "plus-size"? Not being able to walk into a store or shop a website and find clothes that fit. When I gained the final 20 pounds that put me squarely between "straight" and "plus" sizes, suddenly the term that seemed to imprison became a source of freedom for me—a disclaimer that said, "Hey, you can shop here." That's not to say the system is perfect. It's far from it. I'd kill to be able to walk into any store the way I did when I was a size 4, even a 10.
So we asked some of the biggest voices in the industry to share their thoughts: Is it time to retire the term plus-size? (Tune in tomorrow for their consensus.)
We'll also be talking about what life is like when you're a fat woman. Where "fat" becomes problematic is when doctors refuse to see past weight when a patient comes in worried about the golf-ball-size blood clots she's getting from her period, as writer Emily Price shares in her story coming Wednesday. Or when strangers have the gall to walk up to you while you're eating to make unsolicited comments about your food choices, as writer Ragen Chastain horrifically details (check it out on Wednesday too).
But fat can also be beautiful—powerful!—comedian Ashley Nicole Black regales us with her essay about how she's declared this season Big Bitch Summer (out Thursday). Photographer Anastasia Garcia, who shot our Plus-Size Fashion Awards, has been having the best sex of her life this year (read her story tomorrow).
Our goal with this package is not to ostracize, separate, or add to the maelstrom of clickbait on the internet. This isn't for shock value or headlines. Every woman, from size 00 to 40+, has likely grappled with issues about her weight or size at some point. And we know women's media has triggered some of that. (Just look at the top of this story at the some of the coverlines we've run in the past.) What we're hoping to do now is move forward and break down the barriers holding us all back, so we can have truly honest conversations about our bodies.
Join in the talk on social media all week with the hashtag #TheFWord. We'd love to hear from you. Or if you're not there yet and just want to lurk, that's okay too. Either way, I can personally promise, it helps.
