In Self Love, Part 1, I talked about the problems with the way we view obesity. One of the results of this is limited access to clothing.
One of the most common names for girls in the US is Emily, so we'll use that name for the average woman in America.
EMILY
Emily is 5'4"; according to the CDC, the average waist size of a woman is about 38 inches. Look up a size chart to see what sort of clothes Average Emily would fit into. Some size charts strangely skip over her; others just let you assume what her size might be.
The most valuable apparel brands in 2018 were Nike, H&M, Zara and Adidas. In each of these stores, respectively, Emily would be a size XL, XL, nonexistent, and XXL. Average Emily should at least be able to find clothes in 3 of these 4 stores, so let's look at her options.
As we do, let's remember that "average" includes a lot of people bigger and smaller than that 38 inch waist. So let's keep those other sizes in mind, too.
As an aside: I can't help but find it interesting that two of the top 4 stores are for fitness gear. You'd think that, with all the blame put on people who are overweight, the society that body shames obesity would want to encourage working out and give bigger size options. But that's a different issue for a different post.
NIKE
If you go onto Nike's website, you'll find 900 items under Women's clothing. That's a lot to choose from! As it is, Emily, as an XL, is able to choose from almost all of those 900 items. If you were just one size bigger than Emily, you'd have to click Plus Size as a filter, which drops that number to 76, and that still includes every type of apparel, from sports bras to pants. You would only gets to consider 8% of the women's selection at Nike. Oh, and if you do want a sports bra from the number one athletic wear company in America, you'd only have two choices.
H&M
Emily is a size XL here, too. As such, she has access to 1173 items to choose from. If she were a small, she'd have 2266 items, or as an XS, she'd have 3029. That XS's waist is 25 inches on the H&M size chart. Average Emily would have to lose more than 10 inches to get that variety of choice. At least she's not a 3X or 4X. If she were, she'd have less than 200 items to choose from.
ADIDAS
Here, Emily goes up to size XXL. Let's focus on pants here. Adidas has 352 pairs of pants/tights in general. When filtering by size, XS to XL have about 200 items to choose from each. As an XXL, Emily only has 60. Thank goodness she's not tall, too, or she'd only have 2.
OTHER OPTIONS
Despite her limited options at a few of these stores, Emily has found some solid workout clothes that she likes a lot. At H&M, she found some clothes that she fit into in the Plus Size section, too. Some of it was cute, but a lot of it seemed more frumpy than fashionable.
Luckily, Emily's mall is unlike any that exist in real life, so it also has a Torrid, a Lane Bryant and a Dress Barn, stores that brand themselves as catering to bigger sizes. There, Emily has her pick of fashionable and well-fitting clothing that feels like it was made for a body like hers, rather than clothes that were made for someone smaller and just sized up as an afterthought.
If Emily were to live in a city like Chicago, for example, she would find 2 Torrid locations, 3 Lane Bryants, and 2 Dress Barns. However, all of them are located closer to the suburbs, more than 30 minutes from her apartment in the city. Conversely, there are 5 Nike stores, 5 H&Ms, and 1 Adidas store all in the city nearby. So, although Emily has to drive an hour round trip to shop for what she wants, at least she can find those options somewhere, right?
Self Love is a series in which I discuss body-related issues. Stay tuned, or sign up for email notifications to see more posts like this one.
Note: I did all of this research on my own, using the stores respective websites, the ones linked, and Google Maps. Should you find discrepancies or different data, let me know.
One of the most common names for girls in the US is Emily, so we'll use that name for the average woman in America.
EMILY
Emily is 5'4"; according to the CDC, the average waist size of a woman is about 38 inches. Look up a size chart to see what sort of clothes Average Emily would fit into. Some size charts strangely skip over her; others just let you assume what her size might be.
The most valuable apparel brands in 2018 were Nike, H&M, Zara and Adidas. In each of these stores, respectively, Emily would be a size XL, XL, nonexistent, and XXL. Average Emily should at least be able to find clothes in 3 of these 4 stores, so let's look at her options.
As we do, let's remember that "average" includes a lot of people bigger and smaller than that 38 inch waist. So let's keep those other sizes in mind, too.
As an aside: I can't help but find it interesting that two of the top 4 stores are for fitness gear. You'd think that, with all the blame put on people who are overweight, the society that body shames obesity would want to encourage working out and give bigger size options. But that's a different issue for a different post.
NIKE
If you go onto Nike's website, you'll find 900 items under Women's clothing. That's a lot to choose from! As it is, Emily, as an XL, is able to choose from almost all of those 900 items. If you were just one size bigger than Emily, you'd have to click Plus Size as a filter, which drops that number to 76, and that still includes every type of apparel, from sports bras to pants. You would only gets to consider 8% of the women's selection at Nike. Oh, and if you do want a sports bra from the number one athletic wear company in America, you'd only have two choices.
Emily shops for her Nike clothes online. She sees the first pants choices and is disheartened that they are made for smaller bodies and just sized up for her XL without careful thought about how they will look on a bigger body. As she keeps scrolling, though, Emily is absolutely delighted to see a few bodies that look more like her own.
H&M
Emily is a size XL here, too. As such, she has access to 1173 items to choose from. If she were a small, she'd have 2266 items, or as an XS, she'd have 3029. That XS's waist is 25 inches on the H&M size chart. Average Emily would have to lose more than 10 inches to get that variety of choice. At least she's not a 3X or 4X. If she were, she'd have less than 200 items to choose from.
ADIDAS
Here, Emily goes up to size XXL. Let's focus on pants here. Adidas has 352 pairs of pants/tights in general. When filtering by size, XS to XL have about 200 items to choose from each. As an XXL, Emily only has 60. Thank goodness she's not tall, too, or she'd only have 2.
OTHER OPTIONS
Despite her limited options at a few of these stores, Emily has found some solid workout clothes that she likes a lot. At H&M, she found some clothes that she fit into in the Plus Size section, too. Some of it was cute, but a lot of it seemed more frumpy than fashionable.
If Emily were to live in a city like Chicago, for example, she would find 2 Torrid locations, 3 Lane Bryants, and 2 Dress Barns. However, all of them are located closer to the suburbs, more than 30 minutes from her apartment in the city. Conversely, there are 5 Nike stores, 5 H&Ms, and 1 Adidas store all in the city nearby. So, although Emily has to drive an hour round trip to shop for what she wants, at least she can find those options somewhere, right?
Self Love is a series in which I discuss body-related issues. Stay tuned, or sign up for email notifications to see more posts like this one.
Note: I did all of this research on my own, using the stores respective websites, the ones linked, and Google Maps. Should you find discrepancies or different data, let me know.
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