The Size 12 Myth

December 30, 2012

50 pounds to go

Ah, Maryilyn Monroe.  The icon.  The curves.  The sexiness.  The idol us "real women" put on a pedestal and say "if I were a size 12, my body would look exactly like her.  She was a real woman with real curves."  Early on in this adventure, I said the same thing to myself.  And I wondered, when I get to a size 12, will my sizing be the same?  Let's take a look:

Thank you Mike for being my photographer.

It took 50 pounds of weight loss to get to a size 12.  And right now I am a solid 12.  What does this mean?  I affectionately referred to myself as a "fat 16" when I started this journey.  This means that I could squeeze into a 16 but it was uncomfortable.  Then I became a solid 16.  Then a skinny 16.  Then I moved on to a fat 14 and so on.  This also means when I go to the store I can pick up any size 12 and get into it, whereas when I'm a "fat 12" in some stores there's no hope for me.  

So what is the industry standard for a size 12?  Well, there is none.  You may widen your eyes and say "how can that be?" Because no one made a rule that said "A size 12 shall be a bust of 38, waist of 31 and hips of 42.  And so it was known."   I even took a look online at the stores I frequent and each one had a different measurement for a size 12:

Store	Bust	Waist	Hips
J Pederman	38.5	31	41
Ann Taylor	38.5	31	41
Pin Up girl	40	31	41
New York and Company	39.5	31.5	42
Dress Barn	39.5	31.5	42
Old Navy	38.5	30.5	41.5
Jones New York	39	32	41.5

An inch or two of fluctuation may not seem like a lot, but I've noticed with myself it takes about 10 pounds of weight loss to lose an inch in my waist.  That means whatever store I go to, I can be 20 pounds heavier in some cases and still get into the outfit.

Here is something that is even more mind boggling to me: I'm 5'4 and my measurements are 41-33-43 yet I can comfortably get into size 12's (no laying down or acrobatics to button the pants.) but clearly I should be too fat according to the size charts.  What is going on here?  Are the charts lying?  Is it the friendly "stretch" fabric?  Is it the "relaxed" waistband?  Is it the gaucho-cut legs? As a company if I say the waist is a 31 but make it 30% spandex you bet that bitch is going to be able to stretch an extra couple of inches.  Meaning there is a 10 - 30 pound spread where women can still get in even though they shouldn't be able to.  Each company sets their own standard, and many are prone to this "vanity sizing."  Slap on a "12" label on and us 14's and 16's can feel better about ourselves by squeezing our wobbly legs into them.  I may not be able to breathe but I don't care.  I'm in the pants.  Company sells more pants, we get a self-esteem boost.  It's a win-win.  (Except for the fundamental lie but who cares about that?)

Let's take another look at Marilyn.  She was still one sexy hot mama.  No one seems to know what size she was.  Take into account all the modern fluctuation in size 12s, then realize (could not find a documented standard) that a size 12 was probably smaller back in the 50's and 60's.  Plus, I would imagine they weren't meshing everything with spandex meaning that a size 12 would have been much less forgiving than it is today.  Look around on the internet and she was a size 8!  No, a 12!  Some even claim a 14.  If she was a size 14 then I'm a banana.  Let's take a look at the side-by-side from some different angles:

The frontal pictures in the beginning of this blog are much more flattering to my body image.  Then with Marilyn there's a hint of her vag which I think is what makes men go nuts.  The second two pictures are less forgiving.  In the top one you can see that my legs are thicker and a hint of a belly.  Then in the last one there are no secrets.  My boobs are bigger.  There is an ass there.  I have a belly.  A hint of the dreaded cellulite (goddamn it legs, I've told you time and time again not to be so lumpy!) and my arms are bigger.  I'm not getting down on myself, I'm just looking at it with a cold eye.  Plus, Marilyn was clearly good at posing whereas I am no where near ready to audition for America's Next Top Model.  (Where is your barbie toe?  Find the light!  Pop your booty!)  

Clearly, we can't both be 12's so what were Marilyn's hard numbers?  When I was doing the research for this blog a few months ago my Mom asked with baited breath, "so what were they?"  According to her dressmaker, she was 5' 5 1/2" and her measurements were 36-24-37.  At her skinniest she was 118 pounds and at the height she was 140.  Her bra size was 36D.  My mom was crestfallen.  "So she was thin."

With those measurements according to today's wacky standards she would be between an 8 - 10.  But that's just with her bust and hips measurements, her waist was unusually tiny and was the equivalent of a modern day size 6.  After looking at the numbers, she had unusually pronounced proportions.  What I mean by this, is the difference between my waist and bust is 8 inches, creating the "curve" look.  Hers was 12 inches meaning her waist nipped in 33% more from her boobs than mine do. That is a whole hell of a lot, and not normal.  Let that sink in for a moment.

The current "curvy" poster child is Christina Hendricks (Joan from Mad Men) who has slapped around a reporter for calling her "full figured."  This is another celebrity synonym for 'fat' which actually does mean fat: full-figured (adj) having an amply proportioned or heavy body.  I would have slapped the bitch too.  Back in my first blog I admitted to my girl-crush on her and it still holds true.  I think she looks amazing.  She looks real.  She is fucking sexy.  And side by side, at my current size, it looks pretty accurate:

To be fair, that dress was a little tight on me.  Am I supposed to be able to breathe?  No?  Well, then it's perfect.  (My favorite quote from "The Prince and Me."  Yes, I watched it.  Stop judging.)  Christina had officially told the press she's a size 14 but her weight isn't listed anywhere.  I would hazard a guess she's at least 30 pounds thinner than I am, putting her in a healthy BMI range. Besides having a a waist even I drool over, she shouldn't be the poster child for "curvy" but the poster child for NORMAL. 

I have come to detest the word "curvy" to describe women.  Recently it has become synonymous with "fat."  She's not a blob she's curvy.  Every celebrity out there who has a little meat on her bones past looking like a 12 year old boy is curvy.  Then even women who are rail thin strike some sort of pose in a bathing suit and are pronounced curvy in rag mags.  My understanding is that curvy is having an hourglass figure - meaning your waist nips in from your boobs and hips making it look like there is a literal curve.  I inherited the german-stock-wench-genes for my DD boobs and ass, so I feel that I have the right to say I'm curvy.  Kristen Stewart and Taylor Swift do not.

Again, any woman plastered on the TV who is bigger than a size 2 has the caption "look at her embracing her curves!"  Scarlett Johansan, Beyonce, Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez.  I will eat my hat if any of those ladies are bigger than a size 6.  (I've said this to girls I know who are thin and it makes them mad which shows how deeply rooted this idea of "curvy" is in our culture.)  These women are not fat!  They don't get any skinnier, it's how they are built.  They literally have the boobs and the bone structure to justify it.  And in some cases more heavily pronounced than the average bear which is why we point and gawk so frequently.  You may be able to hear the thunk of my anger-typing as I write this.  It really does piss me off that a size 6 could be considered fat.  It's thin!  And the size 2 we see on models are so thin that they officially are underweight.  They start being underweight at 129 pounds if they're 5'11" or taller.  It is a fundamental lie that they are healthy.  Then the ladies who are at a healthy weight with "curves" are being subtly shifted into being perceived as "overweight."  Then all us normal "size 12s" try to squish into stretch jeans and are left with no real tether into reality.  It's all fucked.

So in the end, me saying I'm a 12 is a myth.  It is not true.  My pants say 12, but I look like a 14. Clothing companies have deceived me with their sizing and if they were not forgiving I would be a 14.  Again, in the media, women who are normal sized - meaning in a healthy weight range -  (of which there are 5) are pronounced fat.  Then women who are thin (size 8 or smaller in my eyes) are pronounced curvy.  Finally, women who are underweight are declared normal.  In reality, 68.8% of the U.S. population is overweight or obese (Source: NHANES, 2009–2010) and we're light-years away from achieving the underweight ideal.  In fact, it is something we will probably never achieve but at least I know where I stand.