Big Media Rejecting Plus-Sized Lingerie Commercials

In case you haven’t heard, according to Lane Bryant’s blog, both Fox and ABC banned the airing of this Lane Bryant commercial featuring during airings of American Idol and Dancing With The Stars.

Hot, right?  For plus sized gals, both the model and the styles portrayed are nothing new.  Most of us probably have at least one of those lacy padded plunge bras in our dressers (or, uh, like 8 of them, if you’re me).

So what’s the big deal?  Victoria’s Secret ads roll all night long.  Desperate housewives, soap opera leading ladies, model contestants and reality show stars often strip down to less.  On utterly heinous The Biggest Loser, people twice her size strip down to less clothing.  So why should a curvaceous model in some lingerie cause such a stir?

Why!?

Because this ad breaks every rule of what the media expects us to think about women her size.

These are the rules for the appearance of women on television, as I see them.

1) If you’re on television and you’re above a size 4, you could be considered fat and be subject to a segment (t.v. news) or storyline (sitcom/reality show/talk show) about being fat. See, e.g., Ugly Betty, Drop Dead Diva, Kirstie Alley’s Big Life, Fat Actress, Carnie Wilson: Unstapled, Oprah, Tyra, Roseanne, Facts Of Life, Babes.
2) If you’re (god forbid) plus sized, you should desperately want to lose weight. See, e.g., the shows listed above, plus Dance Your Ass Off, The Biggest Loser, Celebrity Fit Club.
3) If you’re (god forbid) plus sized, you can’t get a date or your relationships will suffer. See, e.g., all of the above, plus More To Love.
4) If you’re (god forbid) plus sized, you can’t be too confident, or consistently confident. See, e.g., all of the above.
5) If you’re (god forbid) plus sized, you want to be as covered up as possible. See, e.g., all of the above.*
6) If you’re going to produce a sexy lingerie ad (rather than one extolling comfort, like Playtex ads), the women must be gaunt, oddly and contortedly posed, with weird lighting, creepy music, and overall feelings of objectification and male gaze. See, e.g., every Victoria’s Secret ad in recent memory, except for this one that seems to have a horse’s gaze.

Breaking the Rules

This ad breaks all of these rules.  We see a beautiful, plus-sized woman enjoying herself in lingerie.  She’s trying on a bunch items, not in exasperation, but in enjoyment.  The gaze we notice most is her own.  She’s checking herself out in the mirror, smiling at herself, tossing her hair.  She’s not posing for anyone, she’s just enjoying the view.  Then she gets a reminder to meet a guy for “lunch” and walks out the door, confidently, in her bra, panties, and a trench coat.

We get the picture of a woman who really owns her beauty, her sexuality, and her body.  You get the feeling that even if her lunch date doesn’t show, she has dinner plans with someone better, even if that someone better is herself.

Of course, the ad plays on old tropes.  The woman meeting her guy for lunch is nearly naked under her trench coat.  And the old, “this isn’t your mom’s lingerie” age-ist, voice-over, is present, which annoys me intensely.

But given these standards, this ad just breaks way too many unwritten rules to be aired.  What if (god forbid) ABC and Fox aired this, and suddenly their plus-sized viewers started spending their hard earned money on jugs-enhancing** bras instead of Jenny Craig?  What if they let their Weight Watchers membership lapse in favor of some lingerie?  What if they started adding up lacy numbers instead of calorie numbers?

Okay, you get the idea.  The networks have a huge stake in the status quo of body hatred, and this ad is just way outside of their comfort zone.  As for me, I might need to pick up another plunge bra. :)

So this week, I encourage you to have a little mirror time with yourself.  Put on some music and some lingerie if you’ve got it (naked is good too) and enjoy looking at yourself.  Enjoy the curve of your shoulder, the swerve of your hip, the rolls of fat, the ripples of muscle.  Use words of approval.  Wink at yourself.  This exercise is only about your enjoyment of yourself.  Nothing else matters.

Let me know how it goes…

*These are just the shows that I could think of off the top of my head.  Feel free to comment with more!
**Yes, I wrote “jugs”.  Alliteration can get you in trouble.

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Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness. She counsels women and men throughout the country on how to get off the dieting roller coaster, give their bodies what they really crave, and love their bodies and themselves. Golda's counseling and activism work have been featured on CBS's The Early Show, ABC's Nightline and Time Out New York. For more support with healing your relationship with food and your body, get your free copy of Golda's Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining by clicking here.