After seeing her speak on a panel about body image and health, I grabbed a few minutes with the legendary full-figured model, cancer survivor, author, blogger, former television news reporter, you-name-it, Emme. Getting through the crowd of admirers was tough.
The audience — eating disorder and obesity activists, writers, Khaliah Ali, a group of women with buttons that all read BAD BODY TALK, and a handful of the disconsolate axe-grinders who gravitate to university conference rooms on weekday mornings — was totally charmed. Even the axe-grinders. Emme has formidable charisma, and everyone wanted to shake her hand. And then tell her their life story. I watched her try three times to get out the door so she could go to the bathroom.
Given her years of industry experience, and her more recent work as a National Eating Disorders Association ambassador, I wanted to talk to Emme about the state of fashion and the culture at large, and the chances of success for any movement for change. She eventually made it through that door to the hallway, and while I waited for her, I found myself looking at the food on offer in a vending machine: Hot Pockets, Lean Pockets, White Castle cheeseburgers, sold in packs of two, Tony’s Deep Dish Pizza, and Blue Bunny King Size Cookies ‘n’ Cream ice cream bars. It occurred to me that, as a culture, we have a long way to go.
We started off by discussing an Arizona State University study she had alluded to on the panel, which found that viewing images of plus-size women was as likely to hurt women consumers’ self-esteem as viewing images of straight-size models.
It seemed like you had some things to say about the ASU study.
My background is as a reporter. I used to be a reporter. And that’s how I kind of go about my career, kind of delving underneath the surface, and asking the questions that interest me as opposed to [repeating] what I’ve heard from other people. Because the study was so contrary to what statistics over the last 15 years have shown…Some of the old thinking, I’m talking 70s-80s old thinking, was that women didn’t want to see themselves [in magazines], and they wanted to see something more “aspirational”/”inspirational.” Well. Yes — we all want to look at something pleasing when we are entertaining ourselves with fashion. But that’s why the top full-figured models, who are 6′ tall, and size 12, size 14, are used. They’re pleasing!
What I’m saying is, all those around the conference room tables, all those making decisions about the imagery of women, let us bring in more breadth of who we are. And let those pages, the covers as well as the internal print pages of the magazines, be diversified in a beautiful, pleasing way, that truly makes us happy. And excited to go to find where those clothes are, because the department stores could really use it.
Do you think it’s a little disingenuous for a fashion magazine to be like, ‘Oh, here’s your April issue where we love your body. Happy now?’
Absolutely. It’s almost a way of distancing, like they’re in denial. ‘Oh, that issue is not really my issue.’ But you know what? All you out there — it’s a we issue. It’s a women’s issue. Women who are size 2 celebrate when they see beautiful women of other sizes. And we’re not talking unhealthy beauty — but we need to push the boundaries for our own minds as to what represents health and wellness. It has to be very different from what we show right now because we’re in such a state of ill health and disease. It starts with us. It really truly does. We need to grapple with that demon within ourselves. And say, Stop feeling so guilty that you’re not working out, stop feeling guilty that you’re not eating well…
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