Amy Schumer and Lena Dunham Speak Up About ‘Glamour’s’ Plus-Size Issue
Image by Getty Images
By Lior Zaltzman April 7, 2016
Amy Schumer was surprised to see herself in a plus-size issue of Glamour magazine.
A photo posted by A S H L E Y G R A H A M (@theashleygraham) on
The actress and comedienne claimed she was never asked to appear in the issue. But more than that, she was perplexed at having been labeled “plus-sized.”
“Plus size is considered size 16 in America. I go between a size 6 and an 8,” she wrote.
While Amy Schumer said there is nothing wrong with being plus size in her post, she wondered whether girls looking at her body and thinking it was plus-sized wasn’t harmful for their self image. “Not cool glamour, not glamourous,” she ended her post.
On Twitter and Instagram, Schumer asked readers for their opinions, and they come in heavy supply.
I don’t think labels are the way to go. Singling women out for their size, and making a point about it is never glamorous @amyschumer
— Juliette Gash (@JulietteGash) April 5, 2016
@amyschumer ‘plus size’ is just another way of splitting us into uniformed groups, putting a label on people’s appearance.
— Kathryn Williams (@KathW80) April 5, 2016
Other celebrities also offered their opinions. , at an event for “The Hollywood Reporter” was asked for her opinion about the controversy.
“I think Amy’s entire thing is trying to sort of like break down barriers and be bold about her own opinions,” Dunham said, “And what I think she was trying to do was stand up for women and say we’re not supposed be categorized in this role, we’re supposed to just be allowed to exist.”
Melissa McCarthy, who is also in the Glamour plus-size issue, posted cheered Schumer on her Instagram, and ended her message of support with a quote from Gloria Steinem:
And while Glamour has since apologized to Schumer, the whole controversy did make them seen… Less than glamorous.
Schumer joining the important conversation on body image and the arbitrary and harmful classification of women based on their dress sizes, though, was more than enough to make up for it. And she ended the night with a very glamorous video of her flying a kite in a bikini.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts everyone except the people who told me what I “should feel” or what I “should have focused on” ?
— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) April 5, 2016
Bottom line seems to be we are done with these unnecessary labels which seem to be reserved for women. pic.twitter.com/VUnrgFseRl
— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) April 5, 2016
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
