It doesn’t matter what group or gender you belong to; misconceptions will abound. Plus-size women know this all too well, as there are so many misconceptions floating around, and most of them are wrong. What are the top fallacies about plus-size women?
Here are 10 misconceptions about plus-size women:
- Desperate dating
- Can’t bag a straight-size guy/gal
- Healthy what?
- Baggy clothes only
- Trends not allowed
- No-self esteem
- Can’t shop in a store
- No athletic prowess
- Prefer being hidden
That’s right, all these misconceptions are wrong, despite what some people might have heard. In today’s article, I’ll go through and debunk every prevailing rumor about plus-size gals and finally clear their names, so let’s get started!
The Top 10 Most Erroneous Misconceptions About Plus-Size Ladies
They’ll Date Anyone
There have been so many stereotypes about fat people having no standards that some people assume that a plus-size girl will always be excited to go out on a date no matter who it’s with.
After all, it beats staying home alone on a Friday night again, right?
Well first of all, who says a plus-size gal is spending her Friday nights alone? Perhaps she wants to be on the couch with a nice snack and the latest Netflix show but if she wants to be out, there’s nothing stopping her from gathering her girlfriends and painting the town red.
A plus-size woman is not waiting for some knight in shining armor to rescue her from her boring single life. Thus, she’s not going to date a man that she seems unattractive or thinks has a bad personality because he’s the only guy in front of her right now.
She knows that another guy will come around and be interested. Maybe it’s not right away, but it will happen sooner or later.
If this sounds anything like your own dating life, that’s because a plus-size woman does not have a less vivacious and exciting dating life than a straight-size gal.
She can date as much or as little as she wants.
Sure, not all men will prefer her size, and that’s okay. Enough will that a plus-size woman does not have a shortage of options.
She certainly does not have to settle.
They Can Only Date Within Their Own League
In the world of dating, there’s a lot of talk about sticking within one’s own league. This means that you should only date people who are as attractive as you or moderately more attractive.
The prevailing belief is that there’s no way that a plus-size woman will ever land a straight-size or skinny dude (or lady! Her choice!).
If you people-watch enough, you’ll realize that that’s not true. Plenty of skinny, straight-size, or even fit men are attracted to plus-size women.
Perhaps they do like a bigger gal or–much more likely–he didn’t fall in love only with her looks, but with her personality and her very essence. That’s what love is, after all. It doesn’t have that much to do with looks at the end of the day.
Okay, but you’re probably wondering, how can a relationship like this ever work? Well, as I’ll talk about more in the next two subsections, it’s not like plus-size women sit on the couch day in and day out binging on garbage.
That kind of behavior isn’t attractive to anyone no matter your size.
For those who see a couple with one larger partner and one smaller partner and think that the smaller partner is only with the bigger one out of pity, they’re being very close-minded.
The truth is, no matter which two people in a relationship we’re talking about, we don’t know the full story of their love.
People are attracted to others for all sorts of reasons. It’s not your relationship, so it doesn’t affect you and thus shouldn’t matter to you too much!
They Only Eat Junk Food
By far one of the biggest misconceptions about plus-size women is that they reached the size they’re at and remain at that size because their diet is full of McDonald’s, pizza, Starbucks, dessert, and all sorts of other unhealthy food.
That might be true for some bigger ladies, but it’s not for everyone.
While what you eat does absolutely play a role in your weight, genetics also influence your size.
A Harvard Health report on the topic states that “for some people, genes account for just 25% of the predisposition to be overweight, while for others the genetic influence is as high as 70% to 80%.”
That’s not an excuse to eat pizza for dinner four nights per week, but for some people, even if they are healthier, they don’t shrink all that much.
They Never Exercise
This next fallacy goes hand-in-hand with the erroneous belief that plus-size women inhale junk food. They must have never seen a gym in their lives.
Bigger women do exercise, but they’re not necessarily always as visible as the skinny, fit gals you see at the gym all the time.
Just look what happened when Nike tried to promote a line of plus-size fitness gear a few years ago. They debuted a larger mannequin and the general public lost its mind.
People carry this two-sided belief that’s a lose-lose for plus-size women. People occupying bigger bodies should lose weight, but they shouldn’t do it in front of anyone else.
Braver plus-size gals will wear gym garb and lift weights at the local fitness facility with the best of ‘em. Others might buy exercise equipment at home or hit the gym at off-hours because they’re afraid of the scrutiny (and rightfully so!).
To say that plus-size women never get up and move their bodies at all though couldn’t be further from the truth!
They’re Stuck Wearing Grandma’s Wardrobe
Now let’s switch gears and talk about plus-size women’s clothing, because boy, oh boy, is that a popular topic of discussion and debate.
The biggest assumption is that plus-size women don’t want to show off their bodies. They’re ashamed, so they’ll want to wear big, baggy clothes all the time.
If not oversized clothes, then they’ll wear bright patterns to distract from the parts of their bodies that they don’t want others to see.
Some plus-size women are self-conscious of their bodies, that’s true, but if a larger lady embraces patterns, couldn’t be that maybe she just likes patterns?
Those plus-size women who wear baggy clothes could also just like looser-fitting clothing. There’s nothing wrong with that.
However, these are not the only kinds of clothing that plus-size girls can wear. They’re not stuck with only black or dark hues in their wardrobe either.
Oh, and crop tops? Yep, plus-size women can and do rock them just as often as any straight-size lady does, and that’s how it should be!
They Can’t Try Trendy Clothes
Clothing trends are in and out of the limelight all the time. When you see these styles debut on runways, it’s always stick-straight women wearing the clothes.
Plus-size models do exist, but even they look like average-sized women at best and not really plus-size.
All this perpetuates the stereotype that when a new clothing trend comes out or an old trend is reborn that plus-size women can’t jump on board.
Well, I’m here to tell you that that simply isn’t true.
You might not see plus-size women hop on every fashion bandwagon simply because no one does that. It’s too exhausting trying to keep up with every latest fashion trend, especially when you consider that so many of them clash with one another.
However, if a bigger gal sees a new trend she wants to wear, she doesn’t necessarily let her size deter her. Considering that clothes are available for all bodies, there’s no reason that a bigger woman can’t try a trend!
They Hate Their Bodies
I’ve talked about beauty ideals on the blog not that long ago.
Beauty ideals do change with the decades, but for more than 100 years, skinny women have been society’s preference. Curves have been in and out, but plus-size bodies? They’ve never been celebrated the same way that skinnier bodies have been.
Since being plus-size does not fit into the parameters of what society deems as beautiful, most people assume that a plus-size woman must hate her body. She must also be actively trying to lose weight, even if she doesn’t want to admit it.
After all, she looks nothing like the bodies that are so admired and celebrated on social media, in magazines, and on Hollywood red carpets. She’s even bigger than a Kardashian, so she doesn’t have the “right kind of curves” or “curves in the wrong places.”
Here’s the thing about beauty ideals. They’re BS. If society really thought that something was beautiful, then why would beauty ideals change every 10 years? It’s because the world really can’t make up its collective mind on what is and isn’t beautiful.
One decade it’s a huge bust, the next decade it’s a smaller bust. Women know that they just can’t win. If they do have features that fit the standard of beauty, they won’t fit forever.
Those who don’t have those features feel like their time will never come, so they’ve stopped waiting.
Many women have come up with their own definitions of beauty, which is certainly a much healthier way to approach life.
So no, every time you see a plus-size woman, no matter what she’s wearing or what she’s doing, you should not assume that she hates her body.
If she’s exercising or eating a salad, you shouldn’t assume she’s trying to lose weight. Maybe she’s just trying to be healthy?
It’s scary for a lot of people to think that women (and men too!) can exist in bigger bodies and still love themselves, but that’s a new reality!
They Can’t Shop in a Store
Okay, so this misconception is rooted in reality, at least a little.
It’s still no secret that straight-size clothes outnumber plus-size clothes in most retail stores by five-to-one (at least), but the gap is being closed more and more all the time.
Plus-size boutiques have popped up both online and in brick-and-mortar locations. Bigger retailers are trying to be more inclusive and expanding their range of sizes, including in stores.
Sometimes, a plus-size woman can walk into a store and find nothing that fits her. That doesn’t mean that she’s the problem or that her body is the problem.
The store is the problem for not offering inclusive enough sizing to accommodate its customers. That kind of thing can cause a store to lose a customer for life!
They’re Not Athletically Inclined
There’s a difference between exercising and being athletically inclined. Even those people who begrudgingly accept that plus-size women belong in a gym just as straight-size and smaller women do will draw the line at plus-size women athletes.
Well, too bad, as they are out there, and in droves too!
Holley Mangold was on the US Olympic weightlifting team in 2012 as a super-heavyweight. She’s anything but tiny, which is needed to be a super-heavyweight weightlifter!
Jessamyn Stanley is incredibly well-known for her contributions to the plus-size community. She’s a writer, an advocate for body positivity, and a yoga teacher. Even though she’s a bigger size than many yoga instructors, she’s still just as flexible as any of ‘em!
Amanda Bingson is a track and field athlete who’s an expert at hammer throwing. She once held the US record for hammer throwing, which just goes to show how good she is at it.
Health and size are not necessarily synonymous with one another, as these women prove!
They Want to Hide
The last misconception about plus-size women is that they like blending into the background and hiding due to their size.
Well, I’ve already proved that plus-size women aren’t afraid to wear anything and be anything they want. They don’t hate their bodies either.
Like any woman of any other size, a plus-size woman might enjoy being the center of attention, or she might eschew that kind of focus. If she doesn’t like attention, it doesn’t mean she’s hiding. It also doesn’t mean she’s doing it because of her size.
This is another misconception that’s easily debunked!
Conclusion
It’s time to put to rest all these falsehoods about plus-size women. It’s okay if you’ve been perpetuating the stereotype with incorrect beliefs. I only hope that you remember that a plus-size woman is a human at the end of the day who is entitled to her privacy without being judged!
