Ashley Graham Says The Term “Plus-Size” Is A Divisive Term To Women

Ashley Graham doesn’t like the term “plus-sized.” Ashley – who made history as the first “curvy” woman to be featured on Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition – says the phrases forces people into categories.
Graham said the word, “plus-sized” is divisive to women,” because it puts “all these women into a category.” And indeed it does, because the purpose of terminology and words is usually to put things into categories, or outside of groups.
Additionally, Graham said there are a lot of “false stereotypes” involved with the term. She said “plus-size” means that women don’t “eat well” or “work out” and they don’t care about their body or have low self-esteem.
Ashley said the “fashion industry” persists in labeling her as “plus-size,” but she thinks of it as “my-size.” The model added that more and more women who are considered as “plus-size” realize that the term is not what they want to be called.
They want to be called, “women with shapes that are our own.” And while that is a nice thought, it would probably be difficult to make a brand of jeans with the size “women with shapes that are our own” because it’s such a long phrase.
Furthermore, Graham thinks the “diversity of body type” is here, because Sports Illustrated put larger women on to the cover of their magazine.
This isn’t the first time Ashley spoke about the term in public. During a Ted-Talk in 2015, the supermodel spoke in-depth about fat-shaming and body positivity. Ashley has been vocal on the topic since she first became famous back in 2010 when she was featured during an advertisement for Lane Bryant.