Hey curvy girls all over the world,
Legendary and controversial photographer Terry Richardson recently shot a few plus size women (some models) for Vice Magazine in a spread called “Tons of Fun.” The spread features the women in sexy clothes positioned in provacative poses. Some of the women are grabbing, shall we say a few of their assets, and some are just standing proud in lingerie or a swimsuit. At first glance I immediately thought yes, plus size power. Then, after staring at the pictures for awhile, I couldn’t help but to think what is the true message these photos are sending? As a plus size girl myself, I am all for being proud of my body and showing that plus size women are beautiful and sexy.
Part of me loves the raunchiness of the photos but the other part of me, questions the message. The title and the poses are enough to say that the message is sexually exploiting the plus size woman. However, the confidence of the women say they’re sexually embracing their curves.
What do you say?
Check out the rest of the photos HERE
I don’t understand why every plus-size photoshoot in the mainstream media has to be overtly sexy or provocative! I would love to see a classy spread featuring plus-size models (who are not in lingerie or nude!). I love curvy bodies, but they don’t always have to be on display. So no, this spread does not appeal to me, I think it could’ve been more tasteful and creative, but then again this is Terry Richardson’s trademark….
I find all of Terry Richardson’s photos to be exploitative. All of his shoots have the “okay now take your top off” vibe to them – like American Apparel ads or amateur porn. With so many accusations of inappropriate conduct with new models and statements like “it’s no big deal, I’ll take my pants off too” I think Terry Richardson is less of a photographer and more of a predator.
Wow what a provocative topic!! I must say upon first glance of the photos, I was with you, plus sized power. Obviously these women are confidant with and in their bodies and exude pure sexiness. However, as I thought about it more, and Googled some of my favorite photos of plus sized models, the theme is pretty consistently, overtly provocative. It’s as if plus sized women are only accepted in main stream media IF they are sexualized. It gives signals to our youth that in order to be accepted as a plus sized woman or to even showcase your confidence you MUST be provocative, unlike other “regular” sized women who have a much broader representation. It invites the projection that plus sized women are only sexual objects as opposed to women of substance, beauty, ambition and more. So although these photos are great, I challenge photographers and the media to do more to better represent us because we are truly way more dynamic!
After looking at these photos, it seems that 1. most of these women are just some regular everyday females. It looked like maybe one or two could have been professional models. and 2. the direction of this shoot looks like the ladies were instructed to do what they think is sexy and/or empowering. It looks like something fun and laid back that the subjects had control over (the makeup, the outfits, the poses) because quite frankly, some of them look a tacky mess and I can’t see that being the true vision of any photographer, no matter how objectifying his past works are. Just myhumble opinion. If the women felt good about the shoot, which appears to be the case, then I say good job!
I don’t think it the pictures are lewd.
I think people assume plus or curvy automatically equals SEX. I think plus size models and their bodies should be shown in a artistic, sexy but classy way just as smaller models are. If this photographer has always done shoots similar to this then that’s fine since it’s the theme.
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I prefer to think that Richardson’s aim was to show that plus or over-size women can be attractive, to give them confidence, that there’s nothing wrong with needing a size 14 or 16 dress rather than a 6 or 8. Whether the images are “sexy” or not depends on the viewer. I do not think these photos are exploitive at all, but rather show us real women who deserve to be accepted for what thy are–good-looking human beings.