Meredith

Everyone here probably remembers the case of Ashley Kauffman, the pretty, full-figured, 19-year-old girl who attended a taping of American Idol and was moved from the front row to the back, just because she was curvy rather than emaciated.

It was a glaring example of thin-supremacist curve-o-phobia, and the following article from a college newspaper uses it as a springboard for an interesting discussion of anti-plus discrimination in general.

http://arbiteronline.com/2011/05/02/respect-every-size/

Here are some of the highlights:


The next passage is especially important:


As for Ashley herself, she appeared on Good Morning America at the time that American Idol's offensive practice was exposed, a couple of weeks ago. Her remarks are worth noting.



What I also find interesting is that although Ashley is garbed in "safe" black for this interview, at 3:29 the camera specifically zooms in on her very fashionable shoes (which Ashley herself wanted to highlight). To me, this epitomizes the situation of young, full-figured girls today: the figure-disguising black attire indicating some vestigial body issues, but shoes worthy of the chicest fashionista indicating budding self-assurance. Plus-size girls are pulled between lingering body disparagement (fuelled by a media that rampantly discriminates against them) and a dawning awareness of how stylish and gorgeous they actually are.

For now, a girl like Ashley confines her adventurousness to her shoes, but hopefully in the future she, and girls like her, will extend that boldness to their wardrobe choices and will proudly show off their full figured in bright hues or bold whites, and will tell any thin-supremacist American Idol usher that the days when people would put up with his narrow-minded curve-o-phobia are over.