People Online Think Fashion Nova's "Body Positivity" Campaign Might Just Be One Of The Worst
Corporate misuse of the term "body positivity" is nothing new, but Fashion Nova's latest campaign may just be its cringiest peak.
"Breaking News: Fashion Nova's Body Positivity Campaigns Are Going Viral," the Instagram carousel post reads, featuring women who all have the same body type in slightly different sizes.
As well as being shared to Fashion Nova's account, which has 21.4 million followers, the campaign was promoted across the brand's partners. One example of this is the Shade Room, which has 29.3 million followers, who shared the post with the caption, "The perfect swimsuits to fit every body!"
The main image used to promote this "body positivity campaign" appears to feature the "Aubrie Gems 2 Piece Bikini," which goes from XS to XL. According to Fashion Nova's size guide, this is from a 32A to a 40D i.e. not plus-size.
A reminder that the average US woman wears a size 16 to 18, which Fashion Nova puts between a 1X to a 2X.
The largest model used in the post is a 1X, but the bikini she's modeling — the "She Sells Seashells 2 Piece Bikini" — is only available for purchase in sizes XS to XL. The same is true of the "Island Wonder 3 Piece Bikini Set" which the 1X model also advertises.
As someone whose clothing size fluctuates between straight and plus sizes, I cannot emphasize enough how frequently brands will use images of bigger models in their campaigns just to have comparatively few plus-size options available. Fashion Nova does offer some clothes in a 3X, but it totals to around three pages of clothing on their sight — a drop in the ocean for the fast fashion brand.
"Body positivity" is a term that brands and social media love to dilute, but we owe it to the Fat Activists fighting for liberation for decades. As National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance Chair Tigress Osborn put it, "If together doesn’t include the fat people and Black people who made Body Positivity possible — as well as other marginalized bodies — it’s not Body Positivity at all."
"Unfortunately, as more people started using hashtags like #loveyourbody and #allbodiesarebeautiful, the most marginalized bodies in society have become marginalized again within the very movement they started," she further wrote.
So, one must ask when seeing advertising like this — where are the fat bodies? The ones with disabilities? What about the bodies of the workers who make these cheap garments? Like...this has to be rage bait, right?
