Oof, Amy Schumer! Let’s Talk About How to Be Body-Positive

Perhaps Glamour magazine’s recent “Chic at Any Size” issue was always going to be the toffee apple of magazine initiatives (a disaster). But, the instigator of most of the fallout following the publication of this seemingly body-positive issue wasn’t the content, it was Amy Schumer. After being listed alongside Melissa McCarthy, Adele, and Ashley Graham as “Women Who Inspire Us,” Schumer took to Instagram to express her displeasure at lumped in with a bunch of plus-size actors on the cover without her prior knowledge:

“I think there’s nothing wrong with being plus size. Beautiful healthy women. Plus size is considered size 16 in America. I go between a size 6 and an 8.@glamourmag put me in their plus size only issue without asking or letting me know and it doesn’t feel right to me. Young girls seeing my body type thinking that is plus size? What are your thoughts? Mine are not cool glamour not glamourous”

It’s a confusing response for several reasons. Before seeing Schumer’s words, one could easily read the caption, “Women Who Inspire Us” and believe the inclusion of Amy on the cover was due to her body-positive attitude, not her physical appearance. Why did Schumer then jump straight to the assumption that the magazine was commenting on her weight or size instead of her prior comedy work and outspoken interviews railing against ridiculous industry standards? Her apparent rush to delineate herself from women such as McCarthy and Adele (“I’m not even fat!”) is what has some people questioning her quick reaction.

Despite stating that “there’s nothing wrong with being plus sized,” Schumer doesn’t want you to think that she belongs in that category. In her efforts to clarify that she is NOT a size 16, Schumer draws a line in the sand between herself, and many of the readers and other women featured inside the magazine. Her declaration that she is “between a size 6 and an 8” almost begins with shaming those whose names appear next to hers. It’s as if Schumer is pointing and saying, “This isn’t what ‘plus size’ looks like. That’s what ‘plus-size’ looks like.” She wants to make sure you know the difference, and for you to know which one she is.

I discussed the Schumer debacle with my friend, who was entirely consumed with Schumer’s reveal of her size. Schumer is known for jokingly describing herself as “fat”; after learning that she and Schumer were the same size, all my friend could think about was whether that label should now apply to her. Which brings me to my greatest problem with Amy’s comments—she re-centered the conversation on numbers. She took what, at best, could have been a magazine about making every woman feel beautiful and confident, and she made it all about who is what size and what that size means in terms of labels.

On the positive side, Schumer has inspired a conversation further reaching than herself. Some people have taken offense at the notion that women “sizes 12 & up,” as it says on the cover, even need their own “special edition” of a magazine, which perhaps feels a bit “separate but equal” of the very industry that gives us such unattainable beauty standards. Others say the problem lies in the labels themselves. Why do we need to call these gorgeous women “plus-sized” at all? In a practical way, the industry has answered these questions for us. Women of these sizes aren’t included in mainstream media, fashion, and entertainment nearly as much as women who have thinner body types. While in an ideal world, the tides would change on what we think of as “beautiful” without the need for activist editorials, when faced with the choice of a) readers not seeing any women over size two or b) a magazine releasing a separate edition featuring women deemed “plus-size,” which is the lesser of two evils?

These types of conversations about the way we discuss size, weight, and beauty and how all of these things are portrayed in fashion, film, and the media are where the attention should be focused. Jennifer Lawrence, considered by many to be one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, often refers to herself as “the fat one” in terms of other working actresses. And while this is intended to calls attention to the terrifying industry standards, it also makes millions of little girls wonder: “If Jennifer Lawrence is fat, then what am I?” Because while we can *objectively* understand that we are faced with unrealistic images of beauty every day, the much more personal self-criticism that lingers in our minds often wins out. If stars such as Schumer and Lawrence can begin to call such labels as “fat” and “plus-size” irrelevant and unnecessary, it would go a long way toward encouraging women and girls to accept themselves as they are, no matter their size.

I certainly don’t think Schumer’s recent comments nullify all the wonderful things she has done in support of body-positivity, but it makes it clear that she is just as subject to the intense societal pressure to look a certain way as anyone else. In this instance, she missed the mark of supporting all women by focusing on the labels that she normally mocks. Schumer and Lawrence could both do more for body positivity by talking about the scrutiny they face as women in their industries, the extreme expectations placed upon them in terms of their appearances, and their support of all women to screw the sizes, scales, and media that want to make them feel less-than.

What did you think of Amy Schumer’s response? What would you like to see change in the conversations about beauty in terms of women of all sizes?