with a plus size model. True I guess they could have said no, but I don't really think they deserve credit. The credit goes to the company Swim Suits for All. And the model is beautiful but I am not so sure she is a true plus size model, she has large breasts and hips but her stomach looks pretty tone. But it's still a good start and hope to see more models like her and larger.

Someone is paying big bucks for an ad spot.



Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that a woman shaped more like the average woman is in the magazine, but this all sounds like some viral ad campaign type of thing with all the publicity surrounding it. Swimsuitsforall is the biggest winner here, and I have a hard time seeing how this is some win for curvy women in a very significant way, or a sign of changing cultural norms or improving body-image issues in our society.

Color me cynical.

eta: I see above I'm not the first/only person reacting this way

But you also describe her as shaped like a woman. Are women with narrower hips or smaller breasts not shaped like a woman? What about women weight lifters who also generally tend to have bodies that aren't curvy?

People of a variety of body types can have healthy functional bodies, whether they have a traditional body type or not.

Perhaps my wording was unclear/insensitive - I meant what I said in contrast to the highly-photoshopped unrealistic portrayals of female shapes that are normally seen in that magazine.

Please don't extrapolate anything else from my words. I said nothing about health or function. Thanks.

It's generating far more exposure than just people who will buy the magazine.

Celebrating women in their 70s and older who are very healthy and active would be a nice start. Those ads that "combat" ageism with airbrushed 42-year-olds with gobs of plastic surgery are not the same thing.

I could imagine a swimsuit issue with disabled young models before I could see them actually using 70- and 80-year-olds. Not that being equally objectified is the best sign of progress, but it's precisely because elderly wise women can't be turned into playthings that photographs of them force an engagement with the subject rather than turning them into a thing.

All of this talk about getting females to love their bodies at any weight seems to be almost entirely focused on young women. Even the most conventionally beautiful women are told they should think of themselves as less than (I read it here on DU) once they get into their 50s . . I believe the phrase last week in a thread on Sarah Palin was, "hitting 50 is the great leveler for mantraps. It will all be gone by 60" (or something to that effect).

Athletic 75-year-old women in the swimsuit issue--THAT would be some progress.

However, if this helps one female not hurt her body because she feels overweight, I guess that's a good thing.

But congrats to Swimsuits-for-all for using a normal size model and paying the money to put her in the SI Swimsuit issue of the magazine. SHe looks fabulous.

the size -0 models look sickly