Fraternity puts on Plus-Sized Beauty Pageant at WKU.

[susan314]

Originally Posted by ChildoftheHorn

According to recent studies the average woman is actually a size 14.

Interesting. I'm presently a size 12, and it is nearly impossible to find clothes that fit properly. (I have been a size 8, sometimes even a 6 most of my life, but am still working to regain my figure with 2 children under the age of 3. ) Clothing at most stores is cut for a smaller frame. I finally decided to try to see if I could find a pair of jeans that fit well at Lane Bryant...the second I walked into the store, the saleslady said "honey, nothing in here is going to fit you."

You'd think that if the average size is actually a 14, it might be a little easier for women in the 10-16ish range to actually find clothes! What in the world do they expect us to wear?

/end tangent

[UGAalum94]

Continuing the tangent, sorry.

My husband and I were talking about this yesterday after a trip to The Gap. What we were thinking is that the morbidly obese people, like half-ton man, are throwing off the averages quite a bit. The range down from a size 14 is relatively limited compared with the range up from there. If they aren't discounting the outliers at the top of the range, well, there you go.

But I hear you about how hard it is to find clothes that fit well or simply look decent if you're size eight through 14, and most of the people who wear these sizes would have healthy BMIs, so we are not talking about overweight people from a health standpoint.

I think I once read that the average for a man's waist size is a about a 40 to give people a sense of the guy equivalent of what "average" is. *

I think the fashion industry is aimed at a certain segment of the market and the rest of us are just supposed to make due.

* while it's easy to find sites discussing women's clothing sizes, almost every search for men returns a bunch of results on penis size. I wonder what that says about our culture?

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

What we were thinking is that the morbidly obese people, like half-ton man, are throwing off the averages quite a bit.

I think Nicole Richie, Lilo, Paris, and Hilary Duff make up for that, though.

Hell, Nicole Richie alone knocks off 5 fat guys.

[UGAalum94]

AlphaFrog, I know what you are saying and yet as far as averages, Nicole can't really go below a size zero zero or whatever, which would be what eight sizes below 14, whereas going up, we've got infinity.

And, I think almost every article on health basically admits obesity is maybe the single greatest health issue for the country with diabetes, high blood pressure, hearth disease, associated. We are not a nation of thin people.

But again, I want to point out that the people in the pageant whose thread I'm digressing from are probably more in the healthy and beautiful range of larger sizes. The pageant is good and corrects somewhat from the idea that being underweight is what's desirable.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

AlphaFrog, I know what you are saying and yet as far as averages, Nicole can't really go below a size zero zero or whatever, which would be what eight sizes below 14, whereas going up, we've got infinity.

I believe most major plus-size brands stop at 30 or MAYBE 32 - which is 9 sizes up. After that, I believe you'd just have to get custom stuff made and wouldn't be a particular "size".

ETA: I'm not trying to "argue" with you or be difficult...just thinking out loud/dialogue type thing...

[UGAalum94]

AlphaFrog, It's interesting to think about. Consider my comments in the same theoretical way please.

I thought you got into kind of a whole different system with W this and that. Do you suppose that the difference between the sizes is greater in the bigger sizes?

Because let's say for a second that a 16 is actually double the size of an eight, which I don't think is actually right (especially when you think about the fact that eights are not double the size of fours), wouldn't it seem like one sees a number of people who are more than double a 16 actually out wearing regular looking clothes in the real world?

The biggest people that I know are clearly more than double the size of other overweight people who I suspect are wearing 14/16/18 sized clothes. Yet, they are dressed like everyone else albeit on a greater scale.

I was assuming that the sizing continued in much the same way all the way up the human population range.

[AlphaFrog]

I think it's more like size 8 is 2" bigger (just an ex. - I don't know the actual scale) than 6, and 10 is 2" bigger than 8...I don't think the scale all of a sudden starts jumping at a certain point. There's still enough graduation among overweight people to warrant using the same scale all the way up. You don't go from slightly overweight to whale with few steps in between.

[BlueReign]

Originally Posted by susan314

Interesting. I'm presently a size 12, and it is nearly impossible to find clothes that fit properly. (I have been a size 8, sometimes even a 6 most of my life, but am still working to regain my figure with 2 children under the age of 3. ) Clothing at most stores is cut for a smaller frame. I finally decided to try to see if I could find a pair of jeans that fit well at Lane Bryant...the second I walked into the store, the saleslady said "honey, nothing in here is going to fit you."

You'd think that if the average size is actually a 14, it might be a little easier for women in the 10-16ish range to actually find clothes! What in the world do they expect us to wear?

/end tangent

I fit right into this category with you. A 10 is way too small and a 14 is too big. Some 12's don't fit right depending on the store. Good luck on getting that figure back. I haven't been an 8 since the year B.K. (before kids)

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by susan314

Interesting. I'm presently a size 12, and it is nearly impossible to find clothes that fit properly. (I have been a size 8, sometimes even a 6 most of my life, but am still working to regain my figure with 2 children under the age of 3. ) Clothing at most stores is cut for a smaller frame. I finally decided to try to see if I could find a pair of jeans that fit well at Lane Bryant...the second I walked into the store, the saleslady said "honey, nothing in here is going to fit you."

You'd think that if the average size is actually a 14, it might be a little easier for women in the 10-16ish range to actually find clothes! What in the world do they expect us to wear?

/end tangent

The problem during this phase of life is that the abs are stretched out, your pelvis probably had to expand and possibly your rib cage too. My coworker found this awesome website and a few of the ladies that I eat lunch with have tried it, bought the jeans that it recommended for them and had great success...
www.zafu.com click on "Get my jeans" and it walks you through a questionairre then finds the brands/styles that work best on you!