Style and fashion have long been the purview of tree limb-shaped models with fake smiles and impossible waistlines. But there are those that have one thing to say to popular culture's spoonfed ideal that only thin bodies are beautiful: phooey.
Welcome to the "Fatshionista" movement, a term that traces its roots to somewhere circa 2007 thanks to advocates such as author and journalist Lesley Kinzel but has continued to grow online -- and on runways. Since then a cottage industry of sorts has arisen online from blogs to websites that cater to full-figured women who like to impress through dress.
Part of that movement is the "Fatshionista" photostream on Flickr, a potpourri of well-dressed women modeling a riot of styles.
And if you think these women upload photos of themselves to fit inside society's norms of what is considered politically correct, fat chance.
"The word 'fatshionista' is a reclamation of sorts," Karen Ward of Ontario, Canada, told HLN. "Many women might feel offended by the word 'fat', but really it's just the same as describing someone as tall, short, brunette, blonde, etc."
Ward, who blogs at CurvyCanadian.blogspot.com, said the word fat has way too much power to be so, well, small.
"We ascribe far too much value to this one little three-letter word. Is fat really the worst thing we can be? For many women, I suppose, it seems that way. The word fat is often used as an insult, meant to hurt the person it's directed at quite deeply. But if we accept our body type, and the fact that we can be happy, healthy, and beautiful while also being 'fat', the word itself loses it's ability to hurt and insult, and instead becomes simply a physical descriptor similar to others that are not based on societal value-judgments."
Carletta Girma, an admin for Fatshionista, said she started posting photos of herself in different outfits in 2011. "I realized how much it helped me to see myself through different eyes and to see how clothes really looked on my body, and the feedback and sense of community was overwhelming."
Girma, who blogs at AnyEveryNothing.com, said no particular size has a monopoly on fashion. "Ultimately, I think the message is that no matter what the number inside of my pants say - I'm a person who deserves the right to be able to reflect whatever it is that I choose through my clothes."
The Fatshionistas are doing big things.
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