More and more brands are jumping on the body positivity and inclusivity train, and it’s so great! It’s about time we see diversity in race, body size, and people with disabilities, because this is the reality of the the customers who buy and wear the clothes.
However, when it comes to the body positivity movement, the question becomes who exactly can participate? Some people don’t think that one particular fashion brand quite gets it.
UK-based online fashion retailer In The Style recently teamed up with a body positivity Instagram influencer for their latest fashion campaign.
Chessie King (@chessiekingg) is an influencer from the UK who often posts the realities of women’s bodies not posed, unedited, and not “glamorous,” like stomach rolls, cellulite, and “unflattering” facial expressions.
Chessie has over 570,000 followers on Instagram who love and adore her and her message.
She uses her Instagram to show the realities of women’s bodies.
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She often takes pictures of herself not posed, unedited, and not “glamorous,” like stomach rolls, cellulite, and “unflattering” facial expressions.
She also posts side-by-sides of what her body looks like filtered and posed and also posed in a more “unflattering” way.
Essentially, she uses her Instagram account to help change people’s perception of body standards.
In jobs where people take photos that are “Instagram-worthy” and “perfect,” like many influencers do on Instagram, Chessie purposefully shows the exact opposite to make a point.
She is often dubbed by her followers as inspiring for putting herself out there so candidly.
Many people applaud her for her body positive message of acceptance and self-love.
Because of Chessie’s message, people praised the brand collaboration.
They loved that women of various sizes and races were being represented in fashion.
Dubbing her a “self love queen,” In The Style teamed up with Chessie to release a fashion line that goes up to a UK size 24, or US 20.
The line features a range of tops and bottoms with empowering graphics, such as “I don’t care whatchuuu think about me.”
Most of the clothing pieces have slogans related to self-love.
The clothing pieces are also super bright and fun to reflect Chessie’s bubbly and positive personality.
However, not everyone was jumping up and down in excitement for this line.
Chessie is a UK size 12 Instagram model (US size 8), and people don’t feel that Chessie is fit to be the face of body positivity because of her size.
One Twitter user felt that women who have bodies like Chessie’s don’t need to work to feel confident about their bodies, because they probably already are.
This post definitely created a debate centered on who can or cannot participate in the body positivity movement, and who and who it is not for.
Bethany continued, “can thin people experience insecurities about their bodies? yes.”
“[I]s it useful to frame conversations about bodies around normative bodies? no.”
She also called out the fact that some of the items seem to be a rip off of other artists’ work.
She also called out the fact that some of the clothing seems to be a rip off of other artists’ work, saying , “there’s a denim jacket in this range with a line of fists on the back, which is, uh, very similar to a design by FattiesAndFeelings, EXCEPT with the trans flag erased from it.”
In the thread of comments on the Twitter post, people were divided.
This Twitter user expressed that she thinks Chessie is a good fit for the campaign because of her overall motivational message.
People also called Bethany out for not being inclusive in her own post.
Many people called the original poster out for not being inclusive in her own post. Even the founder and CEO of In The Style chimed in, saying that body positivity is for anyone that struggles with their body image.
A debate about inclusion definitely erupted.
This Twitter user pointed out that people who lean more towards a thinner body type can still struggle with body image.
But another Twitter user pointed out that thin people are not marginalized in society, even if they’re not feeling great about their bodies.
They don’t have to face the same scrutiny bigger individuals face for being outside of the beauty standard.
People also feel that the clothing line isn’t very inclusive and actually excludes plus size women, since it only goes up to a UK 22.
In The Style ended up addressing the criticism in a lengthy Instagram post.
One Twitter user made a distinction between self-love and body positivity.
On the one hand, she feels that self-love is general and for everyone to participate in, while body positivity is a movement open for a specific group of people.
People also feel that Chessie isn’t genuine.
Many Twitter users expressed that they believe Chessie is purposefully creating “unflattering” body poses to create stomach rolls and other body contortions.
In this long post, they defend their choice to make Chessie the face of their body positivity campaign.
They did also choose to disable user comments on the post.
They explained that they didn’t just choose her because of her body, but because of her overall message of self-love.
They pointed out the contradiction of slamming her for her size in a body positivity campaign that is meant to celebrate everyone.
“Fact is we all have body hang ups and we are using our social voice to be able to say we all have them and we are all beautiful.”
“Our Chessie campaign and the beautiful array of girls who have helped us bring this campaign to market which varies in sizes from 8-22 , not to mention the diversity in the girls stories, background and shapes is something we are immensely proud of and something we will continue to pursue in our quest for squashing the continual reinforcement of attaining perfection.”
What do you think?
Is Chessie a role model for the body positivity movement?
Let us know your thoughts!