Five years ago, I featured a relatively unknown model on the cover of a magazine I was editing. The magazine was cosmopolitan. The model was Tess Holliday, a 300-pound young woman from Mississippi.
We had chosen to put her on the cover for no other reason than that I had met her at a conference a few months earlier. She had made a room full of slack-jawed young women with her story of making it in the fashion world despite being contactless, 5ft 4in and a size 24.
Here, I thought, was an interesting role model for our “snowflake” times. And so we photographed her, let her loose with a pile of clothes we’d brought in, came across a brilliant photo of her in a jade green bodysuit and that was it. We sent it to the printer.
Since monthly magazines are about three months ahead of schedule, we didn’t give it another thought until 12 weeks later, at a meeting, I got an email from my editorials. “We just socialized the cover of Tess Holliday,” it read. “And it all begins.”
She wasn’t kidding. In the back of a cab on my way back to the office, I opened up Cosmo’s Instagram page—usually a place of good-natured comments. But not that day. Or the day after. Or even many weeks after that.
Five years ago, I featured a relatively unknown model on the cover of a magazine I was editing. The magazine was cosmopolitan. The model was Tess Holliday, a 300-pound young woman from Mississippi (pictured)
THIS is what the world needs to see! Bravo’. “Disgusting – Sign out NOW!” It went on and on: a seesaw of high emotion. Angry parties with no middle ground.
This, as it turned out, was just the beginning. In the weeks that followed, the magazine found itself caught between the joy of the body positivity movement and the anger of everyone else.
I was dragged in front of the nation to explain myself on Good Morning Britain, learning that a very senior executive at the company I worked for was shocked by what I had done. Four days later, a sinister handwritten letter arrived at the office instructing me to “be on my guard” as I had chosen to put a “whale” on the cover of a magazine.
I was stunned. The truth was that this cover was in no way an attempt to force a belief system on anyone. It had merely been an opportunity to spark a debate about something the world seemed to be nervous about: women’s bodies. But here’s the point: nobody wanted a debate. What they wanted were winners on one side; losers on the other side.
Larger models have been conspicuously absent from most fashion shows this season. Just a few years ago, big brands like Fendi made plus-size models a permanent feature of their runway shows. Now, however, they all look noticeably slimmer
For a while, it seemed that the body positivity movement was making headway. The 2019 runway shows started filling up with models with juicy bottoms and boobies that wiggled – Ashley Graham, Paloma Elsesser, Alva Clare. In the same year, major fashion brands such as Reformation, Anthropologie and Veronica Beard introduced true plus size ranges for women beyond size 44.
Celebrities talked about finally loving and accepting their bodies
American store Old Navy made a song and dance about it with a million dollar campaign, Bodequality, to launch its plus size range. Celebrities came out in support and talked about finally loving and accepting their bodies just the way they were.
Finally, there were poster girls—Mindy Kaling, Amy Schumer, Chrissy Teigen—for a movement that hadn’t had a name a decade before. It seemed as if a victory had been won. Then it went quiet.
This is in stark contrast to a few seasons ago. For example, plus-size model Precious Lee (photo) was the face of Versace in the spring of 2021. This season that is actress Emily Ratajkowski
This season, actress Emily Ratajkowski (pictured) will model as the face of Versace, while in 2021 it was plus size model Precious Lee
Larger models have been conspicuously absent from most fashion shows this season. Just a few years ago, big brands like Fendi made plus-size models a permanent feature of their runway shows. Now, however, they all look noticeably slimmer. Of the 49 major spring/summer campaigns for this season, only one (St John) featured a mid-sized model (10 to 14).
This is in stark contrast to a few seasons ago. For example, in the spring of 2021 plus-size model Precious Lee was the face of Versace. This season that is actress Emily Ratajkowski.
But it’s not just fashion that the body positivity movement seems to have forgotten. Half of Hollywood seems to be shrinking, thanks to a self-administered diabetic injection called Ozempic, which leads to rapid weight loss. What’s more, the latest cosmetic surgery craze — buccal fat removal (which essentially involves sucking fat out of your cheeks) is on the rise.
A recent image from actress Lea Michele suggests she had the procedure done, while others suspect supermodel Bella Hadid and actress Zoë Kravitz also had buccal fat removal. You have to give it to Chrissy Teigen: at least she admitted to having it.
And then there’s the literal disappearance of the body positivity movement’s most prominent role models. Amy Schumer recently admitted to having liposuction; Mindy Kaling just lost 40 pounds, while Rebel Wilson, Melissa McCarthy, and Adele all seem to be disappearing every day.
As for Old Navy’s sing, dance Bodequality campaign? The brand has quietly brought back its inclusive in-store sizing during the pandemic.
The 2019 runway shows started filling up with models with juicy bottoms and wobbly boobies – Ashley Graham (pictured), Paloma Elsesser, Alva Clare
Of the 49 major spring/summer campaigns for this season, only one (St John) featured a mid-sized model (10 to 14)
This is not how it should have gone. Because this is what happens with movements. Slowly, little by little, they seep into the everyday. Movements that are not performed with anger or venom or the desire for revenge become the norm over time. But the problem with the current branch of activism is that it leaves no room for debate or individual expression.
It’s all rage and fury and power struggles. You are either on the right side of history or on the wrong side. It’s that simple. And so, with no space or time to gather your own beliefs, individuals and especially corporations cling to the side that roars the loudest. In doing so, they stifled their own personal interpretation of the matter.
The body positivity movement (and yes, I know, you should call it the “body neutrality” movement now, which reinforces my point about the rigidity of contemporary activism) was one of the loudest and most cage- rattling campaigns of our time. time.
Have we really changed anything? Or was it all one big lie to the world – and to ourselves?
And yet… it seems to have disappeared without so much as a wail. Looking back at that Cosmo cover nearly half a decade later, I still wonder why Tess never became the face of a major beauty brand.
I also wonder why that issue of the magazine, which has received more public support and press coverage than any magazine in the last decade, ended up selling less than the issues with reality TV stars on the front cover.
Have we really changed anything? Or was it all one big lie to the world – and to ourselves?
- This piece was originally published on Farrah Storr’s Substack, Things Worth Knowing, farrah.substack.com