Preferred Meaning

I found an article in The Irish Sun from the 16th Feb that I think has a preferred meaning. The article header says 'Behind plus-size fashion weekend', with the headline reading 'Our catwalk has beautiful, curvy NORMAL girls'. The preferred meaning in this article would be to make people believe it's ok and normal to have a fuller figure. The intended audience would be fuller figured women to help them feel better about themselves. This plus-sized fashion weekend has happened at the same time as London fashion week where you see super skinny models walk the runway. While the aim of this is to make women feel beautiful no matter what their size, there is another reality to this that we're not seeing here.

Now while I believe that curvy figures are much nicer than super skinny and that curvy women should feel beautiful there is a line between what's healthy and what's unhealthy. The plus-sized model in the article says that she is a size 16 and eats healthy and goes to the gym, but the reality that's not being pushed here is that a size 16 figure could be very unhealthy. While it might be healthy for this model to be a size 16 depending on her height and her BMI, it doesn't give us this information in the article, so in turn every size 16 girl reading this may be led to believe that it's healthy when they could in reality have an unhealthy BMI. It is very unhealthy for people to have excess fat around their mid section, especially for women. According to the Drummond Clinic website:

"Carrying weight around the middle represents a serious health risk. It is now known that there are major health implications of storing fat in the middle of the body rather than anywhere else – studies have shown it increases the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer (especially breast cancer) and high blood pressure." 

http://www.drummondclinic.co.uk/articles/fat-around-the-middle/

In the article the model also says "Designers make clothes up to a size 16, so why don't they use real size 16 women, their customers, to show them off? Why would a designer create clothes in larger sizes if they don't want to see them worn?" The reality not being said here is that the designers are the ones picking the super skinny size zero models to show their clothes on the catwalk. At the end of the article there's a small piece by the fashion editor saying that "The Irish Sun has been campaigning against size zero models since 2007." While I am against size zero, I would be against unhealthy size 16 models also. I believe fashion shows should have size 10-12 models as this to me is what represents 'normal' and also healthy figures. I believe that women should be confident and feel good regardless of their shape but they also need to be healthy and this is the reality that is no being pushed by this article.

Here is a link to the article online:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/article4797781.ece

Here is also a photo of the article that I saw in the newspaper:

The circuit of culture: The article is represented to us with a picture of the size 16 model posing seductively so that people will think she's beautiful and desirable. She is also the one being quoted in the article and as she is taking part in the plus-sized fashion week she is a reliable source for this kind of information. It's printed in a tabloid newspaper making the information easy to digest by the reader. They know that this sort of article will be acceptable by the reader and it is definitely aimed at female readers. It's also a short article with a big headline to catch the readers attention so they are likely to read it. The picture of the model may also catch the eye of some of the male consumers.


I think that the alternative reality is not being pushed here because people get so caught up in trying to get rid of size zero models that they forget about what's actually healthy and what's not healthy when it comes to plus sized models. Plus sized models want to make people think it's ok and normal to be that size so they don't tell them the risks that go along with it.