Several months ago I read a bunch of “news” stories about a clothing company that caters to smaller-sized teens and women and how terribly awful this was because it made larger-sized girls feel ashamed, depressed, and humiliated that they couldn’t shop in this chain of stores. The stories listed tweets from young girls whose self-worth is now nil and it’s all the fault of this brand of clothing because not selling larger sizes is fat-shaming.
Give. Me. A. Break.
This is political correctness run amok and about as anti-feminism as you can get. No one is shaming anyone. If you get the sads because you can’t fit into a certain size, it’s you who is comparing yourself to someone else and it’s you doing the shaming. Heaven forbid there be a mini-sized woman counterpart to places like Lane Bryant that only cater to plus-sized women. Big and Tall is okay, Thin and Short is not! Because FAT SHAME! And not only are there stores and brands that exclusively cater to plus-sized women and that’s okay, but you can also walk into pretty much any other store and find plenty of choices for sizes 14 and up. Sizes 00-2…not so much. In fact, good freaking luck, and be prepared to spend an entire day shopping for one of those sizes.
*Deep breath* Okay, all of this leads me to a story I read today. Manifesta is a company that has decided to forgo using actual sizes and has replaced them with flowers. Yep. Flowers. From their website:
WHY DO OUR SIZES HAVE WEIRD NAMES?
We don’t want there to be an inherent order to the sizes, with women striving to fit into the smallest number possible. And we don’t want women to feel bad for ordering a size that society has deemed “unacceptable.” We just want you to get what fits. So to find your size, use your measurements, not society’s idea of what you should be.
This is the sizing chart that Manifesta wants women to use:
TO CLEAR UP CONFUSION, HERE’S A HANDY SIZING GUIDE TO UNDERSTAND OUR NAMES
| Willow | Poppy | Lily | Rose | Violet | Iris | Daisy | Dahlia | |
| Bust | 35-36 | 36-38 | 38-40 | 40-42 | 42-45 | 45-48 | 48-51 | 51-54 |
| Waist | 24-25 | 25-27 | 27-29 | 29-31 | 32-35 | 35-38 | 38-41 | 41-44 |
| Hips | 35-36 | 36-38 | 38-40 | 40-44 | 44-47 | 47-50 | 50-53 | 53-56 |
Oh lookie there. Screw you, smaller people! No flower for you! Can’t even give your size a weed name like dandelion or clover. But this of course is okay and totally not little people-shaming.
Hey, I have an idea! Companies should just stop making small sizes altogether and maybe skinny people will cease to exist, and therefore no more “fat-shaming!”
