Said Tess Holliday, quoted at BBC.
Here's the cover:
Yes, that's a Miss Piggy tattoo on the right forearm.
What to make of the top story, "Is Success an Illness"? I can't find the article on line, so you'll just have to go with the title and its context on that cover. And the subtitle: "The high-fliers 'killing it' at work." And I'd put that in the context of this NYT article, "How to Retire in Your 30s With $1 Million in the Bank/Fed up with their high-pressure jobs, some millennials are quitting and embracing the FIRE movement. (It stands for financial independence, retire early)":
Carl Jensen experienced what he calls “the awakening” sometime around 2012. He was a software engineer in a suburb of Denver, writing code for a medical device. The job was high-pressure.... Mr. Jensen was making about $110,000 a year and had benefits, but the stress hardly seemed worth it. He couldn’t unwind with his family after work; he spent days huddled over the toilet. He lost 10 pounds.He was losing weight. He figured out how to retire at 43. No word on his current weight. Hey, this is a great article on a subject I love and it does mention the old book I would have called it remiss not to mention. So I'll do a new post about this article. Please save you comments on the precise topic of retirement and concentrate on the fat cover model and what it means. (My tag for the subject has always been "fat," and I've been criticized for it, but I believe that calling fat "fat" has been the right word ever since the 1970s, when I picked up the book "Fat Is A Feminist Issue" at a friend's house and read it straight through while she was cooking dinner. And I note that Holliday said "fat" — "someone like me, an actual fat body.")
Here's Cosmo's own story about Holliday. Her Instagram hashtag campaign is #effyourbeautystandards. From the Cosmo article:
The five-foot-three model explained: "I was a US size 16 to 18 my entire life before I had Rylee [her first son, who she had at 20]. I look back on those photos now and I don’t wish I was that size, but what I wish is that I loved myself 120 pounds ago.... I’m at the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life now and it took me being the heaviest to finally love myself... I have had people say to me: 'Shut up already with your diversity. You’ve already made it.' But I’m not talking about me and my career. I’m talking about the tonne of models out there who don’t have the opportunity because they don’t have three million followers on social media."Tonne? Is it just British Cosmopolitan? Yes. At American Cosmopolitan, I'm reading "Can You Tell None of These Balmain Models Are Real?/Take a closer look":
I confess to staring at the picture long enough to muse about getting my haircut like the one on the right. It didn't occur to me that these weren't real people until I read the headline. That's how ruined my mind is! Despite reading "Fat Is a Feminist Issue" in the 1970s.
Posts
103 comments:
The one on the left is pretty convincing, the one it the middle, less so, but I wouldn’t have questioned it, probably, but the one on the right is obviously CGI. Or wearing makeup to create that effect.
A fat girl with a good personality would do best off doing it in person.
I didn't really start working until I was 43 or so. Up until then it was all music and in and out of University.
It was a dismal long haul but I managed to retire at 69.
The lesson ought to be, anyway if you consult men, that looks don't matter for long, only at first. Look for ways of getting past the at first and it will pay off better than losing weight.
Th first thing that popped into my head was Rusty's Law.
And then I thought those tatoos are really gonna look like shit if she loses fifty ponds.
That fat woman is awfully absorbed in herself. I guess that’s standard-issue narcissism for models, but on her it’s not a good look.
Fat like hers makes one look dangerously large. And being dangerously large puts people off unless the person adopts a jovial and innocent persona to go along with it. Which makes the person deceptive. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Classic beauty requires a strong jaw line.
Classic beauty requires a strong jaw line
Spoken like a woman. Men aren’t so judgmental about jaw lines as women are.
The lesson ought to be, anyway if you consult men, that looks don't matter for long, only at first. Look for ways of getting past the at first and it will pay off better than losing weight.
That’s like the short guy who wore lifts when he was “cruising” but when after getting the date, he ditched them, because they were only there to get past women’s unconscious filter. It’s true that looks are less important for men than women think, but in this case, she is pushing the envelope.
Good for her, but I'm not buying....
Tim in Vermont.
Thanks. I needed that.
And I'd put that in the context of this NYT article, "How to Retire in Your 30s With $1 Million in the Bank/Fed up with their high-pressure jobs, some millennials are quitting and embracing the FIRE movement. (It stands for financial independence, retire early)"
Might some might even call the FIRE lifestyle: "Living off the fat of the land"?
"...they haven't altered how I look..."
I'm somewhat suspicious on that.
I checked out some other photos of her online, and she generally has a rounder face with a double chin.
Part of the cover is the sucking-in-the-cheeks expression, but it looks to me that they did some significant Photoshop contouring.
So I took the image into Photoshop and -- yeah -- I think there is some work done.
Look at the shape of her face on the right side of the photograph: the sharpness and contrast of the cheekbone and cheek indicates masking and re-shaping.
View the picture from the nose down and asymmetry issues become apparent: the left side is not as retouched because the hair does most of the work.
Now, they no doubt do this to all cover models, but representing the photo as "unaltered" seems disingenuous.
I will say that it does look like they left her body rather true -- so, in that sense, the "actual fat body" is pretty accurate.
Maybe the editors have accepted the fat body, but the true fat face was a step too far.
I am Laslo.
A picture of her tilting at a windmill would have made the same point and saved everybody time and trouble.
Thing annoys me is that contraption at the super market. Pleasant voice while it's weighing me, then it silently points out I'm obese. Obese? Thing's broken pretty often and I can understand why.
Perhaps she has a tattoo on her face that was too much for the mag.
Between the fats and the tats, I'd say she has issues.
"Yes, that's a Miss Piggy tattoo on the right forearm."
Holliday has the faces of Dolly Parton, the drag queen Divine, Mae West, and Miss Piggy inked on her right arm.
She explained that she models her life after these "badass" ladies and she wanted a permanent reminder of the woman she hopes to become.
"I get to go through life with Dolly, Divine, Mae West & Miss Piggy on me & hope to be as badass as them!" Holliday noted.
She added, "My right arm was tattooed by my dear friend @nikkohurtado. There is no one who does realism the way he does & captures the tiny details that really bring his tattoos to life."
I'll bet she drinks Diet Coke.
"I love myself!" Yes denial works for a time, especially when people around you tell you how awesome you are as a fat body.
She can get back to us in 25 years when she can no longer walk because her knees and feet are broken down due to weight stress.
Libruls, like the Cosmo editors, are mentally ill.
When I see somebody as skinny as the three "models" in the picture at the bottom, my first thought is drugs. You would be amazed how many "model skinny" women you see if you are walking near a methadone clinic, for example.
It took me a while to figure out that these three were not real, either.
I've yet to see anyone whose looks were improved by a tattoo.
My taste in women runs toward thick and curvy, but there's a limit. I'm sure there are dudes who are attracted to her, but I'm not one.
I wonder if and how the NHS will treat her when her health begins failing, since they have so many old people to look after. Death panels!
I think the theme of the magazine is, just quit.
Being thin is hard, so be fat. It's okay. And besides, since everyone is fat, maybe we can sell fashion magazines to them too.
Working in stressful conditions is hard, just quit--you know, as soon as you can just quit and live well.
The Balmain models looked fake to me, but I can see why others could be mistaken. We are so used to airbrushing of models on magazine covers, that noting the uncanny valley of a perfect face isn't unusual. I scrolled back up to look at Tess's face, and same matte look with no blemish at all. Look at her legs, and you can see the oil of her skin creating a sheen. They could airbrush the legs, but the point was to see the folds of fat.
So you're not too attractive to begin with. Recognizing that, which way should you go? Why, it's a no-brainer. Ya make yourself even more unattractive by adding tats, lots and lots of tats. In life you can make good decisions; you can make bad decisions.
Tess wants the haters to kiss her ass? More in that sentiment than meets the eye.
It’s probably time for a Tess Holliday tag.
"A magazine like that has never put someone like me, an actual fat body, on the cover of a magazine."
Okay, now I remember where I heard that term "fat body" before.
"She can get back to us in 25 years when she can no longer walk because her knees and feet are broken down due to weight stress."
Give her 10 years, with that much weight.
As my wife pointed out, all these fat acceptance models are young. Their bodies haven't broken down under the stress of bearing that much weight without the support from their muscles.
I can talk about one woman with serious health issues directly tied to her weight. She's had hip-replacement surgery and at least one knee replaced. She was able to shed pounds using one of the popular weight-loss plans, but her injured body threw her mentally and she gained it all back (and brought their friends with them).
Tess Holliday can talk about body positively all she wants. Her body says different, and it will win in the end.
If she doesn't want to lose weight to conform to traditional ideas of beauty, she should exercise and watch what she eats for her health. Maybe she does, but I doubt it.
"Even if it was what I do with my body it's no-one's business."
Except, in the era of community rating and insurance without regard to prior conditions, we get to pay for the consequences of her gross obesity.
At some point, it will be the business of elder-caretakers to break their backs to move this body around.
Of course, putting that body on the cover of a magazine to be viewed by unsuspecting grocery-store customers also makes it other people's business. It's an in-your-face move that tells people: accept this, like this--or be a deplorable bigot. The usual.
In China, you rarely see any non-Chinese of her ... stature.
Nature made us.
Technology made her.
Her figure would not be achievable under the conditions in which the human animal evolved.
A lot of our problems have to do with the side effects of technology. The Promethean gift comes with a price.
We've abandoned beauty for an embrace of the freakish.
Aesthetics do matter. I can't be the only one who finds things which are visually unappealing can be uncomfortable to look at. I mean physically painful at times. It's no different than dissonant music, bad smells, or uncomfortable textures.
It's one thing to have a few extra pounds because you don't want to spend your life in the gym, never eat another carb, or run forty miles per week. Small flaws can be covered up with makeup, proper dress, etc. But when you're massively obese, poorly dressed, heavily tattooed, you are inflicting your choices on other people.
Fat chicks are rilly transgressive because the fatter you are the bigger your boundaries.
Here's where the 'models' come from.
"The one on the left is pretty convincing, the one it the middle, less so, but I wouldn’t have questioned it, probably, but the one on the right is obviously CGI. Or wearing makeup to create that effect."
That's what I'd say about the one on the left! If it's convincing, it's because you're used to seeing real women with a tonne of makeup and photoshopping.
You should also consider the possibility that you are more ready to perceive humanity in a face that looks like one of your racemates.
"Classic beauty requires a strong jaw line."
You can see that she's got technique for that: makeup, lighting, and that blowing a kiss bullshit.
I'd rather see the natural face that goes with that body. As it is, it doesn't make sense. The head and body are mismatched, and that seems to symbolize that the mind of the person is not at peace with the body. Show us the real face if you really want to say you're happy the way you are.
As an old fart, I feel bad for young men (another area where they have suffered). Women in America, as a group, are much fatter now than they were when I was a young man. Of course, every guy isn't going to marry or go out with 9's and 10's, but back then most young women had reasonably nice bodies, an hourglass like shape, an actual waist, etc. In attending weddings of my kids' friends, younger relatives and friends' kids, I'm dismayed at the number of overweight young women getting married and in the wedding parties. The outlier is now the one with what used to be a normal, slim figure. Sad.
Being fat has been normalized, so maybe this fat person really is happy. That does not make the trend good for society or women in general. Being fat is unhealthy, being that fat is just asking for an early death. Can't imagine how any guy could find that sexy.
Bullshit like this promoting "fat acceptance" is 80% rational marketing. Clothing manufacturers no longer ignore the way-too-fat and seriously obese because they make up a significant percentage of consumers these days. I wouldn't be surprised if half or more of the readers of women's magazines are clinically obese.
The other 20% is the expected Clown World degeneracy and perversion. Next up on the cover: obese low-effort tranny challenging our entirely socially-constructed ideal of beauty.
Her weight is a health issue.
As an old fart, I feel bad for young men (another area where they have suffered). Women in America, as a group, are much fatter now than they were when I was a young man. Of course, every guy isn't going to marry or go out with 9's and 10's, but back then most young women had reasonably nice bodies, an hourglass like shape, an actual waist, etc. In attending weddings of my kids' friends, younger relatives and friends' kids, I'm dismayed at the number of overweight young women getting married and in the wedding parties. The outlier is now the one with what used to be a normal, slim figure. Sad.
As a single man in his thirties, this is true. And it's not just a few extra pounds but seriously overweight. Often with tattoos and "pin-up" style (50s dresses and cat-eye glasses). It's frustrating and saddening, because many of them would be attractive, but they choose to make themselves ugly.
Tank: As an old fart, I feel bad for young men (another area where they have suffered). Women in America, as a group, are much fatter now than they were when I was a young man. Of course, every guy isn't going to marry or go out with 9's and 10's, but back then most young women had reasonably nice bodies, an hourglass like shape, an actual waist, etc. In attending weddings of my kids' friends, younger relatives and friends' kids, I'm dismayed at the number of overweight young women getting married and in the wedding parties. The outlier is now the one with what used to be a normal, slim figure. Sad.
That's true, I observe the same thing, and it is sad. But dude, have you looked at the young men? Plenty of fatties among them, too, even if there are relatively more overweight/obese young women.
Then there's the skinny-fat "noodle-armed soyboy" phenomenon, which probably arises from the same unhealthy sources.
I can see why she makes the cover. There are lots of fat people waiting in line at the supermarket. They can pick this up as an impulse buy. As a marketing technique, I'd put it right next to the Hershey display.......Through my forties, I had a forgiving metabolism. I never much bothered with what I ate, and I remained thin and healthy. My fitness wasn't a function of my virtue but of my metabolism. I can see how the preaching of fit people can drive fat people crazy......Nowadays, in order to remain modestly overweight, I have to walk past bakeries and pizza parlors, and my heart is being constantly broken. It's a real hassle, and I'm not sure if it's worth it.
Both photos depict extremes, neither is attractive to me.
-sw
Even if it was what I do with my body it's no-one's business."
It is since unless you have the money, if you need a surgery, the state might say sorry you’re on your own.
I bet she flies a lot and rides the tube.
Very privileged of her to take 1.5+ spaces.
-XC
"In attending weddings of my kids' friends, younger relatives and friends' kids, I'm dismayed at the number of overweight young women getting married and in the wedding parties. The outlier is now the one with what used to be a normal, slim figure. Sad."
I would agree overall, but last May I attended my kid's PhD defense at CU in Boulder, and of the 30 or so people in the room, no one was fat (except my partner keeps at me for my weight), and there was maybe an extra 20 lbs in the 20 people under 30 - cumulatively. I can look at their pictures on Facebook, such as from weddings, and determine fairly closely whether these are undergraduate or graduate school friends based on the extra weight on many of the female undergraduate friends.
We see a lot of heavy, verging on fat, young women both here in NW MT, and back in PHX. My partner claims that it is a result of the women getting fat when they start having babies. That may be true of the Mormon girls in UT, but I get out a lot more than she does, and talk to more people. A lot of these young women seem to start bulking up much earlier - chubby kids, fat teenagers, then obese parents. At the Walmart by the house in PHX, it is not uncommon to see someone, probably a parent, on a motorized shopping cart, because they are too fat to walk, accompanied by just that, chubby kids and fat teenagers. And they will have their shopping carts full of empty calories - chips, pop, etc. There, being judgmental, I expect most of that food to be bought using SNAP.
I know that I am being judgmental, but at their ages, these "fatties" are going to face serious health issues, and, as has been pointed out above, there seems to be a point of no return. Excess weight causes knee and hip problems, and those make exercise painful, which further exacerbates the problem. And then you start getting breathing issues, which require O2, which makes things worse. But then, esp for the guys, Diabetes is inevitable, and not well controlled ultimately results in amputations, which makes things even worse. Stroke are more common, as well as heart issues. Etc. Its bad when it happens to someone you don't know, but worse with someone you do know. Watched it happen to a GF from college, who was maybe 110 then, and was nearing 200 20 years later, and that was before she went on a walker and O2, which she had by 50.
"...it's no-one's business."
It is when you and Cosmo choose to parade it.
She says she's healthy, so I reckon she is. All of those BMI/life expectancy correlations must be statistical mumbo jumbo. You know, just like the bogus DNA typing in the OJ criminal trial.
Angle-Dyne, Samurai Buzzard said...
"Next up on the cover: obese low-effort tranny challenging our entirely socially-constructed ideal of beauty."
Make that "feminine beauty". Gender may be a social construct, but no one is putting obese men on magazine covers.
buwaya said...
Nature made us.
Technology made her.
Her figure would not be achievable under the conditions in which the human animal evolved.
******************
I dunno. Consider the Willendorf Venus:
https://tinyurl.com/y9ajrqqm
"The Venus of Willendorf is an Venus figurine estimated to have been made 30,000 BCE" --wikipedia
Not instantly recognizing the three "models" as computer germinated by their gestalt is a failure of the reciprocal Turing Test.
[i]I would agree overall, but last May I attended my kid's PhD defense at CU in Boulder, and of the 30 or so people in the room, no one was fat (except my partner keeps at me for my weight), and there was maybe an extra 20 lbs in the 20 people under 30 - cumulatively. I can look at their pictures on Facebook, such as from weddings, and determine fairly closely whether these are undergraduate or graduate school friends based on the extra weight on many of the female undergraduate friends. [/i]
Boulder is a bad example, because the whole culture is upper class white virtue signaling. Running (especially weird crap like the beer runs or ragnar races), hiking (through Europe!), etc. I grew up in CO, attended CU for undergrad, and spent four years in Colorado Springs, so I saw it all.
Excellent point Jay. All the pre-agricultural goddess statuettes look Mama Cass-ish. Suddenly I have a craving for a ham sandwich
Re: hour glass figures. Back in the day a lot of that was due to girdles. Praise be and hallelujah I have never worn a girdle. Nowadays we have spanx, but for the women that I interact with those are only worn for special occasions.
I don't really care about what other people weigh with two caveats. First: It helps me decide what I don't want to allow myself to become. Second: Just like with legalized marijuana, I don't want to have to pay for the privilege of someone else's life style.
I would normally feel sorry for the dating options of young men today, but women displaying their red flags loudly and from a mile away is probably a good thing.
Call me an optimist.
Apparently, young men need a chlamydia detector these dazys
reader: Re: hour glass figures. Back in the day a lot of that was due to girdles.
No, it's a real thing. Look at pictures of young women in bikinis or the low-slung jeans with midriff tops that were a thing back in my day. Waistlines made by nature. (Who used girdles in the '70s? Nobody in my age cohort, that's for sure.) The cylindrical torsos seen so often on young women today is a new thing.
Apparently, young men need a chlamydia detector these days
It's right under your nose.
It's right under your nose.
Ugg. Can't imagine how you know that. Reminds me of the most disgusting part of boot camp a health class slideshow and the DI says: "How'd you like to chow down on that, privates?"
Howard:
If I were the DI I wouldn't have been able to resist the obvious pun: "How'd you like to chow down on those privates, privates?" Probably a good thing I'll never be a DI.
Michelle Obama's anti-obesity movement worked like a charm.
Let's hope the days of the First Lady having a "cause" are behind us.
Soft bigotry of low expectations doesn't just apply to skin color, apparently.
Althouse wrote :”You should also consider the possibility that you are more ready to perceive humanity in a face that looks like one of your racemates.”
The American electorate is pretty much a racemic mixture: Equal numbers of righties and lefties.
These people actually make me more judgmental. The more society celebrates the grotesque, the undisciplined, and the ridiculous, the higher my standards go.
The dirty little secret is that the tastemakers also find her grotesque. If they didn’t they wouldn’t think it was boldly transgressive to slap her on the cover.
her pall-bearers are in the gym bulking up for the big day as we speak
"Body positive" messaging made possible by a nice face.
She's having her cake and eating it too...much.
"fork-lift" comes to mind for some reason
when the over-use of one necessitates the use of the other
https://www.netflix.com/title/80241483
Link to Netflix's "Obesity: Post Mortem" documentary. Everyone this heavy needs to see the damage done to their internal organs over time carrying that much excess weight.
Tess is a Mississippi girl.
She gives us a lot to be proud of.
Last week I took the wife into a Heart Clinic for a scan. One of the other patients was a Samoan who admitted to weighing 350 lbs. The tech told him the scanner table was only good to 300, and he didn't want to chance it. Then they got on the phone to find a scanner that could take the weight.
So when does GQ put a shirtless 400lb man on the cover to make overweight men feel better about themselves?
to muse about getting my haircut like the one on the right
Ha! So am I.
..."Even if it was what I do with my body it's no-one's business."
The bureaucrats at the NHS beg to differ with her, refusal of treatment is on the horizon.
If Americans weren’t obese, three-quarters of our health costs would disappear.
It’s one thing to accept one’s weaknesses, sins, and shortcomings. It’s quite another to pretend they’re somehow virtuous.
If Americans weren’t obese, three-quarters of our health costs would disappear.
Early death saves medical costs. Which way does it go after that effect?
"Mr Wibble said...
"But when you're massively obese, poorly dressed, heavily tattooed, you are inflicting your choices on other people."
Disagree. Nobody owes it to me to look good, not even in public. I do get to be internally judgmental about their choices (see "People of Wal-Mart"), but they aren't "inflicting" them on me, any more than I'm "inflicting" my unspoken judgment on them. We're all just going about our business.
It's glorifying those choices and putting them on magazine covers that crosses the line -- which, of course, is exactly the point.
Fat, loud and aggressive. Nice combination, particularly in a woman. /s
Oh, I did. I said “particularly in a woman.”
Kiss her ass?
Hard pass.
P.S. The part that annoys me, whether from some fat chick or a gay guy or whatever "out there" trait he or she is sporting, is that they want so desperately for me to notice and accept. Honest to god, I don't care how you look or who you have sex with - capital letters don't care.
-sw
My three granddaughters (pre-teens, early teens) are active and certainly not fat. They are all involved in athletics. I give their Mom credit, because she's a life-long jock (if that makes any sense). Their friends, so far as I can tell, are the same. I understand (believe me, I understand!) that some of us are doomed to being plumper than we'd like to be. But that doesn't mean that we should encourage fat pigs as role models for the young.
'fatuous' -- she embodies the term in a fuller sense.
So, that's a colored person.
that doesn't mean that we should encourage fat pigs as role models for the young
Choices, choices (not Choices). That said, people should strive. Do what you can, when you can, if you can. Normalizing excessive body fat is harmful to the individual and has only negative consequences for society and humanity. Progress to realize the lowest common denominator is why have diversity, abortion rites, political congruence, immigration reform (e.g. trail of tears, population replacement), and other Pro-Choice religious policies.
Tess wants the haters to kiss her ass
Who has that much time?
Early death saves medical costs. Which way does it go after that effect?
Not to mention what it would do to Social Security!
Apparently, young men need a chlamydia detector these dazy
Had a houseguest over the weekend who is a PA, and she says she is shocked at how often she is diagnosing this.
I'm all for obesity, smoking, and drug and alcohol abuse. Weed them out early in their 50s. The single biggest hit to medicare and SS was that too many people quit smoking. Politicians of the day, eager for a Big Tobacco payoff, argued that smoking increased social spending, when in fact the opposite is true. Smokers pay alot of taxes and die younger, and usually rather suddenly.
steve said...So when does GQ put a shirtless 400lb man on the cover to make overweight men feel better about themselves?
--
"That's not funny!"
She looks horrible, unhealthy and most women aren't so overweight. Didn't we just have 8 years of a first lady hectoring America about being out of shape? And the same dodos who badgered us to get in shape, and derided Americans for being fat slobs are the ones putting fat cows like this tranny on magazine covers.
All I ask of my fellow citizens. Carry your own water. I carried mine.
Is there a way to track Cosmo's sales at magazine stands for this particular issue? 'Cause I have a hypothesis about it ....
Rob McLean at 7:46 ... comic genius.
Honey, put some effing clothes on.
Honey, put some effing clothes on.
Post a Comment