V Mag's Plus-Size Issue Just a Stunt

The better idea would be to incorporate the models into every issue
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 11, 2009 12:26 PM CST
V Mag's Plus-Size Issue Just a Stunt
Plus-size models walk down the runway in this file photo from a Lane Bryant fashion show.   (Getty Images)

V magazine is the latest to jump on the plus-size models bandwagon, and it’s making news—but should it be? The New York Post—in the delicately-titled article “Heavy Changes”—broke news of the January issue, featuring models like Crystal Renn. But Amy Odell think this is just the latest “publicity horse” for a magazine that recently made headlines by featuring models in blackface.

“Like giving nonwhite models a fair shot at landing runway shows, ad campaigns, and editorials, casting plus-size models shouldn't be so out there that it becomes an item to ooh and ahh over in ‘Page Six,’” Odell writes in New York. “When magazines devote entire issues to that thing that they've shunned, it has the effect of tokenizing it.”
(More V magazine stories.)

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