Amy Schumer Backlash

We all know the story by now but here's a quick re-cap:

Glamour Magazine teamed up with Lane Bryant on an issue of the magazine that honors the accomplishments of plus size women.  On the cover they list Amy Schumer as a woman they (the magazine writers, I guess) admire.

Amy reads this and instantly takes offense.  "I'm not fat!" she says (or words to that affect) and to prove it she tweets a video of herself in a bikini.

Then, much criticism and praise ensues.  I read opinions that Amy was wrong to try to distance herself from fat women.  I read opinions that Glamour was wrong to label these women as "plus size" rather than just recognize their accomplishments and leave it at that.  All valid points.

I like Amy.  She's very funny and her movie Trainwreck was hilarious.  I am a little miffed by her initial reaction to distance herself from the "Fat" magazine issue and her attempts to back-pedal and say she just doesn't think women should be labeled.  Right, they should not be labeled by their size.

I haven't read Glamour magazine in over 20 years.  I am glad that there are now more options than ever for women of all sizes to buy cute clothes.  What no one has mentioned is that Glamour is just trying to sell clothes.  Unfortunately, in the process they may have offended the very women to whom they are trying to sell the clothes too.  (okay, I know that's not grammatically correct but, whatever).

It bugs me that a woman's size is basically the first, last and only thing people will say about her.  All of her talent, achievements, hard-work etc are tempered by comments about her weight, her appearance, her hairstyle, her outfits.  Why is everyone so obsessed with appearance.  And of course, it is Glamour Magazine, not News Week.  But, this attitude is everywhere.

And it's hurtful.  It hurts our feelings that no matter what else we do, the only thing people seem to care about is our weight, or our hairstyle, or how we look.

I would like to see a magazine celebrate the accomplishments of overweight men.  I would like to see (hear) every article, interview, and news story about any male athlete, politician, musician, actor, or any man in the public eye refer to his size and appearance at the beginning and end of the article, whatever else he may have accomplished or is being interviewed about?

That'll be the day.