A new generation is emerging now. A generation of woman who are no longer being viewed as different simply because of their size, but becuase of their talent. Women who are being regarded as not just "big and sexy", but "hot and steamy".
Women who are proud to be who they are in their own skin.
Rising Jazz and Soul British singer, Adele, 19, who is known for popular songs such as "Chasing Pavement" and "Hometown Glory" is plus size herself. Adele told Times Online, “I’ve always been a size 14-16, and been fine with it. I would only lose weight if it affected my health or sex life, which it doesn’t.”
"“I am overweight, but I don’t care.”
Lead singer of popular Portland based band "The Gossip", Beth Ditto weighs 210 pounds and couldn't be happier. She is the center of many crushes of male *and female* fans and has been described as "sinfully sexy", "beautiful in her own skin," and portrays a "confidence that is rare, even with skinny women."
Ditto was nominated for "Sexiest Woman Of The Year" at the NME Awards 2007 where she performed the Heaven 17 song "Temptation" with former Pulp frontman, Jarvis Cocker.
Recently she has refused to play in-store at Topshop stores citing her dissatisfaction with their clothes range not available in her size. She went as far as to offer to design clothes for them saying, "Give me the job. I want to design. I want you to make clothes for big girls - big boys. I want you to make big sizes."
Ditto posed nude for On Our Backs, a women-run lesbian erotica magazine. "It was a big moment in my life," she told Curve magazine. "It was kind of a radical thing to do. I got my period just 10 minutes before we got there, and I was totally bleeding. I was doing it with my tranny boyfriend, who I’m in love with, and I was totally bleeding — how radical is that? — and I’m a fat person, and I’m a femme. It felt really good."
Nikki Blonsky, 20, star of the hit Broadway movie, "Hairspray", may not weight over 200 .lb, but her weight is packed in on her small 4 foot 10 frame. The singer and actress has been quoted to say, "I'm thrilled beyond belief to be different in this business. I pray that there will be more roles for bigger girls. I pray that the role of the love interest, the beautiful, sexy girl, will be played by a plus-size woman."
Another star who is nearly a veteran of the movie and television world, starring in hits such as "Ugly Betty" and "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", America Ferrera, 23, has gained and lost weight over the past few years, but has also been viewed as a curvacious woman. The 5-foot-1 actress is in fact known for her curvy figure and smile.
"I think Hispanic women are beautiful with their curves. I'm not sure who feels that way in Hollywood. I was never told to lose 50 pounds. If they think that they just don't bother with you. You just don't get the role and you never know why. That's still better than physically harming yourself and becoming unhealthy just to star in a movie," Ferrera says.
"It's so reassuring to have a woman heroine who triumphs with more than just what she has on the outside... who has more to offer the world than just a pretty picture. To me, the tragedy about this whole image-obsessed society is that young girls get so caught up in just achieving that they forget to realize that they have so much more to offer the world."
She has also been quoted to say, "I think it's hilarious when people call Jessica Alba or Eva Longoria Parker curvy. Come on. They're not curvy. They're small. I'm curvy."
Other actresses such as Scarlett Johanson and Rachel Weisz are not known for being plus size - because their not - but simply for being more curvy than other popular bodies in Hollywood.
Model, sister of Liv Tyler, daughter of Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, and spokeperson for plus size boutique "Torrid", Mia Tyler, has said, ""I was always a big kid and I'm okay with that, but I know that it would have been better growing up if I had seen role models who had figures like me, beauty comes in all different packages."
The model and ocassional actress just released a book entitled, "Creating Myself", describing her difficulties with modeling, her parents, and mothers death and overcoming them.
This ever rising generation of beautiful, plus sized, and poweful women are not telling girls that it is bad to be skinny, but that it is good to be happy and secure in your own skin, as long as you are healthy. The message that these women are portraying to the world of young females is simply to be healthy and be happy. You shouldn't have to be thinner to be a winner.
It has certainly made an impact on me (pictured below).
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