Telegraph’s Steaming Hot Take on Nike’s New Plus Size Mannequins: Swing and a Miss
In a Telegraph article Tuesday, writer Tanya Gold apathetically explained her belief that Nike’s new plus-size mannequins normalize an unhealthy condition. The responses are generally righteous indignation.
The Nike store in London recently added larger than traditional mannequins that show off size 18 activewear, with which Gold took issue.
“I fear the war on obesity is lost,” Gold begins, describing the new models as ‘gargantuan, immense, vast’ and ‘heaving with fat.’
“She is not readying herself for a run in her shiny Nike gear. She cannot run. She is, more likely, pre-diabetic and on her way to a hip replacement. What terrible cynicism is this on the part of Nike?” says Gold.
“The fat-acceptance movement, which says that any weight is healthy if it is yours, is no friend to women, even if it does seem to have found a friend in Nike. It may, instead, kill them, and that is rather worse than feeling sad. ”
Late night show host James Corden calls on the Telegraph to apologize for printing hate.
This article is so cruel. The @Telegraph should apologise for printing such hate. It’s incredibly upsetting. https://t.co/x8RXDgSTt7
— James Corden (@JKCorden) June 11, 2019
Roxane Gay, among others, castigated the tone-deaf article:
I work out six days a week. I am fat. I wear workout clothes while working out. The world continues to turn. Shut up.
— roxane gay (@rgay) June 10, 2019
Tanya must not run a lot of races. I’ve been in half marathons with women who look like those mannequins.
— Daniel ? Summers (@WFKARS) June 11, 2019
This writer has gone their entire lives without seeing a fat person exercise?? Really??? What kind of fatphobic nightmare of a bubble do they live in?
— Wagatwe Wanjuki ?? (@wagatwe) June 10, 2019
“The very critics who argue that plus-size women need to exercise, will then turn around and attack them when they do work out (and, say, choose to do so in Nike gear),” said a writer at Refinery 29.
“Fatphobia often implies that fat people should strive to be thin while also ridiculing and shaming them when they want to exercise. It’s a lose-lose situation and a sad continuation of the status quo,” wrote Jamie Feldman at the Huffington Post.
The Good Place actress Jameela Jamil also chimed in. “It’s hate speech. We can’t allow people to discuss size like this. We wouldn’t allow it about race or religion in these huge publications,” she said.
As did Ultra runner Latoya Shauntay Snell. “My robust imagination must’ve zapped myself skinny at every race. I must’ve heaved my fat into a dumpster while nobody was looking. There’s no way I ran in this 247 lb fat suit,” she said.
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