Why It's Difficult for Plus Sized Women to Go Shopping

According to the CDC more than 35% of Americans are considered obese. That's why it's so confusing that it's nearly impossible for plus sized women to find clothing in their sizes at popular retailers, even though they sell plus sized products online.

I recently read an article about this on Huffington Post and it blows my mind. I grew up with long arms and legs, but an extremely thin frame, which caused me problems finding jeans that were long enough, but I can't imagine how difficult it would be to be plus sized and not be able to find any clothes at all in stores! These women can't possibly be sure that the clothes are going to fit and look right on them if they can't try them on for themselves.

The fact of the matter is that it just isn't okay. Not only does it alienate plus sized women even more than they already are on a regular basis, because of modern day expectations and body shaming, but it poses a huge problem to more than half of the women in the United States! How is that fair?

The research that ModCloth did came to the conclusion that "more U.S. women report wearing a size 16 dress than a size 2 and 0 combined." If this is the case, shouldn't it be more difficult for a smaller girl to find clothes? Being that girl that wears a size zero I happen to know that the stores always carry my size.

And on top of it being hard to find plus size clothing in stores many major retailers don't even carry plus size clothing at all! I won't even get myself started on the recent Abercrombie & Fitch controversy about the CEO wanting "beautiful people" to shop in their stores which is why they didn't carry bigger sizes.

I understand that brand image is important. However, alienating such a huge portion of the population from being able to shop at your stores or buy your clothes at all is not a smart marketing decision at all. Why is everyone so stuck on shallow, juvenile, unattainable beauty ideals? Everyone deserves the same treatment, so I hope that after this gets around and starts causing controversy they'll start carrying bigger sizes in more stores.

We need to fight back, because this is not okay! Let these retailers know that this is not okay to the women that they're doing this to!

If you'd like to read up more on the subject click the links below. Or if you have any feedback feel free to leave a comment below.


"Plus Size Clothing Sold Online But Not In Stores Poses Problem for Shoppers," HuffPost
"More U.S. Women Report Wearing a Size 16 Dress Than a Size 2 and 0 Combined — ModCloth Introduces Full Range of Sizes," Modcloth