It’s just as hard to be Ken as it is to be Barbie by Sarah Taylor and Kavah King
Photo: Marc Whatley
As a little girl I grew up thinking I wasn’t enough – but yet too much, all at the same time. I wasn’t pretty enough, I wasn’t skinny enough, I wasn’t strong enough, and at the same time, I was too big, too tall, too loud and just too much. I was inundated with images in the media of what a woman was ‘supposed’ to look like and she didn’t look like me. I didn’t see girls like me in magazines, on TV or in movies, and for most of my life I thought I was living in the wrong. Did you know that not only women have experienced this? Kavah of The Gentleman’s Curb blog opens up about this too.
Photo: Marc Whatley
“When I was a teenager, I stood about 5’5 and weighed close to 200 pounds. I knew that I wasn’t built like most of my peers because the girls would let me know. Those experiences affected my self-esteem among other things. I looked to pop culture to find someone or something that I could identify with. There wasn’t much. Now as an adult, I feel that there needs to be more representation. Men of size aren’t clumsy or goofy as we are consistently portrayed to be in media. It is my hope that I can give some men the extra push.”
Photo: Marc Whatley
If the average woman is a size 14-16, then why don’t we see them on more magazine covers, in fitness ads, and in the media? Only in recent years have we started to see some, but we need to see more. FabUplus Magazine is a great trailblazer in seeing plus women (and men) in print, and we need yet more of it.
So what would it look like if we saw plus women and men in advertising, on the cover of magazines and in other media platforms? Well, let me show you…
Photo: Marc Whatley
Kavah and I recently did a collaboration where we found some magazine covers, media influencers, and fitness ads, and we recreated them to make a statement, showing what it would be like to see both women and men of size in these types of media sources.
Now, imagine being a little kid and seeing someone your size on the cover of a magazine. Do you think you’d grow up thinking you weren’t enough? Probably not!
Models:
Sarah Taylor – www.SarahTaylorsJourney.com (IG @SarahTaylorsJourney)
Kavah King – www.gentlemenscurb.com (IG @ gentlemenscurb)
Photography by: Marc Whatley – www.superobvio.us
Instagram: @superobvio.us