What is even going on today?
Stop the world, I want to get off…
Thats right, the first part of blog post title is word for word.. that’s one of the main stories in The Telegraph today.
Writer (I’m calling her a writer because she doesn’t deserve to be called a journalist – although I can think of relevant other names for her at this moment in time) Tanya Gold decided to write an article body shaming NIKE and their new sports range as the gym clothing is modelled on a Size 16 mannequin.
“I fear that the war on obesity is lost, or has even, as is fashionable, ceased to exist, for fear of upsetting people into an early grave. Nike Inc, the multinational company named after the Greek goddess of victory, has introduced plus-sized mannequins to its flagship store in London to “celebrate the diversity and inclusivity of sport”. They wear the famous Nike tick, which says: welcome to the mainstream.
Yet the new Nike mannequin is not size 12, which is healthy, or even 16 – a hefty weight, yes, but not one to kill a woman. She is immense, gargantuan, vast. She heaves with fat.
She is, in every measure, obese, and she is not readying herself for a run in her shiny Nike gear. She cannot run. She is, more likely, pre-diabetic and on her way to a hip replacement. What terrible cynicism is this on the part of Nike?”
I’m so confused by this? It’s hard enough to find gym clothes for myself that i’m comfortable in and my size varies from a UK size 6 to a UK size 10.. So hats off to NIKE for making sure there is something for everyone.. Right?
Well Tanya continues in her article by saying..
“I would never want a woman to hate herself for what she finds in the looking-glass. But to have control over your body you must first know it; to be oblivious is not to be happy, unless you are a child. The fat-acceptance movement, which says that any weight is healthy if it is yours, is no friend to women, even if it does seem to have found a friend in Nike. It may, instead, kill them, and that is rather worse than feeling sad. Fat-acceptance is an artifice of denial – they are fat because they do not accept themselves – and a typically modern solution to a problem, if you are a narcissist. It says: there is no problem. Or if there is, it’s yours, not mine. As soothing as that may be to hear, your organs and your skeleton will not agree.”
Oh.. Some more from Tanya’s article..
“The word “fat” should not be a slur. But it should be a warning. So, it worries me to see Nike, who promote athleticism, treating the obese model as potentially healthy in the cause of profit. It is as cruel as telling women that the child ballet dancer and the porn body are ideal. Where is the body shape between the tiny and the immense, which is where true health lives? Where is the ordinary, medium, contented woman? Where, oh where, is the middle ground?”
Hold on, Hold on, Hold on..
I’m confused.. if someone is going into NIKE (My Yoga pants were £48, they’re not going there to waste money) They’re going in for a reason. How exactly do you expect people to lose weight and work out without gym clothes? What do you want them to do? Work out at home? Hide away? Not work out? I’m confused, is anyone above a size 10 not allowed to wear gym clothes anymore? What is advertised on that model and mannequin is Gym Clothing.
So Tanya what exactly were you attempting to achieve from your article? Your body shaming women if they’re above a size 12, You’re having ago at NIKE and shaming them for finally having some Gym Clothing that can fit Plus sized people so they can go to the gym – be healthier and feel better about themselves and maybe even lose weight whilst they’re there.
All Tanya’s article has done is shown what a massive hypocrite she is – She is body and “fat” shaming larger women.. and also shaming a huge company for making sure that there is gym clothing that could help ALL women feel comfortable in the gym?
Find me any other brand that openly promotes sizes to fit all – and not just models that look like they’ve already lived in the gym for the last year or 2?
It’s a no win situation here..
I HATE going to the gym, I find it absolutely terrifying especially because it’s so easy to think that everyones looking at you even if they aren’t..
I’m so disappointed in Tanya’s article and even the fact that The Telegraph thought it was acceptable to post.. AND The fact it’s even written by a women, for some reason makes me even more annoyed and I find it even worse.
Body positivity is something I strongly believe in, maybe more than most as a someone recovering from an ED.
Plus it’s 2019 – We should be celebrating the beauty in everybody.
Here’s Tanya’s full article – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/obese-mannequins-selling-women-dangerous-lie/
And heres Rebecca Reid’s article – a come back to Tanya’s and something that should actually be posted – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/exercise-isnt-just-thin-people-nikes-obese-mannequins-inspirational/?li_source=LI&li_medium=li-recommendation-widget
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