Share

BITE BACK: Is where I air my views about things that have annoyed me in a subject pertaining to all things plus-size.
Comments are most welcome.

BITE BACK: Anne Wintour and Oprah Winfrey.

Original Article: http://omg.yahoo.com/news/vogues-anna-wintour-tells-oprah-winfrey-to-lose-weight/22691

This is my own personal opinion and also gives people and idea of the BS  models face whether they be plus-size or not.

This article has been mentioned on Dimensions Magazine forum and people have plenty to say on there.

In regards to the article. Anna Wintour is a women who stands at the forefront of the fashion industry, deciding what styles should make it onto Vogue (often considered the fashion bible) and which fashion doesn’t. She stands in front of camera dripping with real fur, tired looking face and lips that scream, ‘I love collagen.’  According to this article she told Oprah Winfrey (who stands before us as an established entertainment persona, rich entrepreneur and public speaker as well as fine actress who has risen through the ranks of obscurity despite many set backs in her life to build a powerful empire) to lose weight to grace the cover of Vogue.

Like her or not, Oprah is a women you have to respect because of her amazing journey. Her openness about her struggles with family, her weight and other issues.

I had two main thoughts : Who does Anna Wintour think she is in the grand scheme of things to demand someone like Oprah to lose weight and secondly, WHY did Oprah feel this was a good idea?

I can only think that Wintour locked into Winfrey’s one main weakness as a woman and that is, her lack of self belief in the beauty of her body as it should be – personally to her. Her own genetic make-up. If Oprah feels at any time her well being would benefit weight loss then that is all good but to lose weight to fit into someone’s perception is not good.

Yes she’s over eaten and dieted and may have had success to a point, but just like many of us who have gone down the diet route, few of us have been able to maintain the weight we thought we should be.

I know I will never be slim again and if I do happen to lose weight it won’t be due to a diet, nor will it be for life.

I have had many, many times where I thought I would get more work if I slimmed down or maybe some guy would think I was cuter if I wasn’t a plus-size. I finally figured out what I was doing wrong. The simple answer was: I wanted to please other people in their perceptions on beauty.
I can’t tell you when and where I wised up, but I did and and it’s a personal thing. No one can tell you when and where. It will just happen like a lightening bolt that says to you, ‘I love me for me, and if others don’t – fine.’

Wintour later claims in the article she that she wants to bring  to the forefront of peoples minds the importance of eating well. I call PR BS. This is nothing about Anna Wintour caring about people’s well being and their souls. This is about Anna Wintour observing fat people with the perception that fat is ugly. This is her own perception which indeed some people share – but not everyone. She’s justifying her personal disgust with throwing the health card out there.

But here’s the thing. I could say I find Wintour unsightly aesthetically. I could say that and I could say, Anna please lose the fur rug coat, stop pumping your lips with collagen or whatever you use, get a good nights sleep or three and possibly get a new haircut. You look old and haggered. You look like a the house that fell on the wicked witch of the west; wooden, beat up and old.
But you know that all seems to, gosh how do I say, immature for me to mud sling like that (even though that is exactly what you have done with your quote Ms Wintour)

So I’ll put it this way: The truth is Anna, dear (patronizing treacle smile – you know the one you give people) I do not like your soul. I do not like your ulterior motives toward this issue we speak of. It makes you seem shallow as a person.  Your hurtful perceptions are damaging to people’s health because some poor girl in a house in Minnesota is biting her nails and crying in her room because she is being bullied about her weight. She looks on the internet and sees what you have supposedly said and her mental state is worsened by the very notion that she is not the picture of a beauty queen you ram down people’s throats on a daily basis.
Look at Donatella Versace’s daughter – the extreme end of anorexic and I bet you will never address that in your ‘eat healthy article.’  Take a look in your mirror and tell the world what you really are as a human being. Then we’ll have something honest to discuss. Not this crap your spinning in your over priced fashion bible for overpriced clothes.

Let me tell you, the readers, a fact. You’re gonna die. It’s inevitable. We are on a journey through life from birth to tomb. There is no stopping it. It does not matter how much you weigh but you will die at some point. Maybe you will die naturally and maybe you will unfortunately succumb to a disease, but one day you will take your last breath and you will leave this life.

It is how you live your life and what your heart sang whilst here that will be your legacy and the measure of you as a person. Not a person of any size, color or religion but of YOU as PERSON.

In my past experience in the health care world I have watched many people die. Some died holding my hand – It is a surreal experience to watch someone pass from this life to the next, but it’s also a telling tale that you can die, anytime from anything. It does not have to be fat related.

Heart disease is a killer. No two ways about it. But so are Cancer and Aids amongst others. I’m not going to sugar coat that. I know my life mortality rate is lower statistically than someone who doesn’t smoke and doesn’t have a high sugar/fat diet. The shocking thing is, when I go for my yearly health check they say, ‘Miss Reece you’re fit as a fiddle BUT we suggest you lose a few pounds.’  That’s fair enough for them to say and they would not be doctors if they didn’t tell me that.
Occasionally I’ve tried only to find I’m a grumpy unhappy little witch. Is that the legacy and the measure of me I want people to be left with when I leave this world?
Nope, I’ll stick to plump, happy and opinionated any day. And if I die of a disease related to my weight or lifestyle I’ll say, ‘O.K fair enough, but the good times rolled in my life and I loved it, let me know when I have to leave and say howdy to the big guy upstairs.’

Losing weight is your personal choice. Do it if you want to for YOU and you alone. I know when my weight goes up and it becomes uncomfortable. It’s when my back starts to ache a lot. I then go out and step up my power walking or yoga, scale down my sugar intake and I’m good. I enjoy it but I do it for me, not because someone tells me too, and I don’t beat myself up if I don’t do a power walk session or eat a candy bar. No, no and no. I refuse now at this point in my life to do the guilt trip thing. It wastes time when I could be having fun.

I’m in tune with my body and know when and how to just make it feel right.
But the point is, I now do this for ME and not for someone who says I should or don’t look the way they want me too.

I think Oprah looks good. She always did, but she had moments where she was uncomfortable with herself and that’s never flattering to behold. But while she stands tall and makes the most of what she has then she is a formidable and beautiful human being and to be honest someone like Anna Wintour could only hope to be as powerful as Oprah is.

The legacy of Oprah will leave is that her heart was good, she may have screwed up but she showed the world that she was a human being who had issues she made journeys to understand better and learn from. And when all was said and done she loved people and people loved her.

The legacy of Anna Wintour at this point would be that she was a woman with power in the fashion industry which is fickle at best, and that she was appalled by people who were fat. Oh, and she dripped in real fur and had rubber looking lips.

Sorry Ms Wintour am I being too mean to you? Well karma comes and karma does.

I’ll take my flab, cellulite and shimmy off with my head held high. I bet I have more fans that you because I’m keeping it real. And I bet Oprah has more fans that both of us put together so why do we hail her as an amazing inspirational human being?

But this is how fashion works. They call jump and we say how high and for how much?

A few years ago I was involved in a photo shoot with a well known fashion guru and let me tell you many of us who took part in that were made to feel unworthy in some way due to how we looked. Maybe this so called guru didn’t mean to offend, but once a champion of showcasing a women’s body and loving you for you, something changed in the Guru’s mind set that said, ‘less fat looking people makes for a happier world.’ What they really meant was, ‘I used to be fat, and I find it kind of gross now and I can’t bear to see it on anyone, so let’s suck it in, let’s hide it.’

Well Guru, those were your issues not mine. I will take my fat booty off and work with someone else, regardless of their celebrity standing or not who appreciates all women of all shapes and sizes.  You are not on my important enough list.

Maybe I actually don’t want to be an A-list drone? Maybe I want to have my little part of the world where I’m respected for being me and not what some stylist, director, photographer wants me to look like.

Understand here and now why people throw the health card or the, ‘fashion looks best on slim’ card and you will slowly start to not give a crap what people think. But only yourself. Love you for you. If you feel you need to make a change to enrich yourself or get what you want out of life, do it because you want to, not because others say its best. These people don’t care about your health, they care only of themselves and what they like the aesthetics of a person.

That is not a person I want in my life, for business nor pleasure. If you can’t look deep within a person and enjoy what they have to offer from their heart and soul then you are as shallow as shallow can be.

Be empowered by you, and your legacy will be that you lived your life your way; and your way was the best way for you as a person.

I’m going to tweet this to Oprah and maybe she or one of her people will read it one day. I hope so and hope she knows she never has to lose weight to leave an amazing legacy as a person.

Leave your comments, she or her people may even read them. Don’t forget to tweet, tweet, tweet to your own followers.
Vanessa Reece