I came across this article whilst scrolling through Facebook today-
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/facebook-ban-size-26-model-8030503?ICID=FB_mirror_main
For those of you who are too lazy to read, it's about how Facebook removed and banned a campaign picture of Tess Holiday in lingerie. Tess is a plus size model (size 26) who has divided opinion since becoming one of the first plus size models to be signed to a major agency. Facebook apparently cited the following reasons-
It (she) violates health and safety standards
"The image depicts a body or body parts in a undesirable manner. Ads may not depict a state of health or body weight as being perfect or extremely undesirable."
The word 'undesirable' pops up an awful lot during the article.
So, I have a few pretty big issues with this. Firstly, who died and made Facebook the leading authority on desirability?!
Secondly, regardless of your own personal opinion of her size, the fact is that there are people out there who are a similar size to Tess Holiday. Why don't they get to see themselves represented I'm the media. Why do they have to see their own body types removed from Facebook for "violating health and fitness standards"? I can't say I follow Tess to closely, all I know is that she is undoubtedly stunning and has a 'fuck you' attitude when it comes to people slamming her purely because of her size.
I could scroll through my feed right now and screen grab pictures of celebrities in bikinis, articles about the latest and most likely unhealthiest fad diet, or super skinny models. That's what we are bombarded with day in and day out. But surely if you're going represent one end of the spectrum, you're going to have to represent the whole damn thing? You want to be inclusive, right Facebook? If pictures of a plus size woman in lingerie are "undesirable" then maybe you should consider all pictures of lingerie clad women undesirable instead of alienating a fairly large (no pun intended ) portion of your user base. Just a suggestion.
I was reading through some of the comments on the article, and they were indicative of the comment section under anything written about over weight people ever. A lot of people seemed terribly concerned about her health, when she has time and time again come out to say that she's in very good health. Fat doesn't always equal unhealthy, just as skinny doesn't always equal healthy. I don't ever recall Holiday saying she is or wants to be a good role model. She's just a woman doing her job. And to be honest, her attitude is whats healthy. She promotes body positivity regardless of shape or size and that should be applauded and encouraged instead of being stamped out by the largest social media network in the world.
Facebook 's action in this sends a very powerful message. They readily allow pictures of half naked women to pollute the site, as long as they are under a certain size. Facebook has essentially told all of its plus size users that we are "undesirable "
I'm not ok with that.
