The thing with working in an industry that is essentially not just about fashion but equally about a revolution on body image, women’s issues and body positivity is that you can guarantee however your Monday is going, someone somewhere is going to throw a spanner or two into the works.
When an email from plus size fashion retailer Navabi dropped into my inbox I was expecting the usual model shots and ‘new in’ ideas but instead I was confronted with a story they had picked up on that had for once not happened on social media.
And that is quite key to the story. Now fat shaming, body shaming of any kind is wrong, most of us are schooled enough to know that aside from the fact shaming another person is cruel, it is also proven to not help improve someones life in the short or the long term – so it is essentially mean and pointless. But in a generation that spends most of its time online, hiding behind a computer screen, digital trolling is something that we have sadly all learned to live with. It’s not big and it certainly isn’t clever, but commenting cruelly on someone else’s business, whether it’s on the Daily Mail or on an instagram post is common enough that our outrage is suitably watered down somewhat. However trolling has now left the digital world and is pounding the pavement.
Yesterday a woman was handed a card by a man (see card) – labelled FAT before the reverse of the card, I imagine, was meant to deliver a few ‘home truths’. Read the card, or don’t read the card because it will remind you that people can often be atrocious, unnecessarily cruel and utterly ignorant. Now the woman in question cried (I think I would too) and the man in question who clearly has no source of employment, friends, family or hobbies for that matter – because who has time to print and hand deliver cards to unsuspecting commuters – leapt off the train as fast as they handed the card out (coward). The British Transport Police are aware of similar incidents and are looking into it. The daily commute is a time when we all tend to zone out – it is pretty sacred in that sense – but if you have seen him or received a card please report it.
In response we saw that Navabi has offered the woman (when she is tracked down) £500 to spend on their site and we have said hey, hit us up and come down to our studio and get some great shots with our team – because NO ONE has the right to try and shame you, no one has the right to attempt to embarrass or humiliate you and NO ONE likes a bully – so let’s show them that love is more powerful than hate!
We also love that Navabi have headed down to said high street to hand out cards to anyone (no size or gender limitations) that simply say YOU LOOK GREAT! Because we all need a bit of cheering up on a winter’s evening.
