Plus-size model Crystal Renn doesn't like being called "plus-size". She also doesn't like people making fun of her past eating disorder. So why would the size 10 model indulge in a photoshoot of face-stuffing sausage, flanks of meat and a massive serving of spaghetti?
CONTROVERSIAL WORK OF PHOTOG TERRY RICHARDSON
The series of "fashionable" photos featuring the 24-year-old Renn were the brainchild of celebrity photographer Terry Richardson. They aren't the first in controversial photos for the photographer, who's been known in the past for "sexually exploiting males" and creating a reputation of photoshoots that are to an "extent autobiographical and are noted for their controversial, graphic sexual subject matter."
The pile-on photos of Renn pigging out are not only strengthening the myth that plus-size models are diet negligent but are also putting Renn's reputation back in "potentially disastrous" territory, according to StyleBistro.com.
While Crystal has, in the past, come forward about her past eating disorder she's also been quick to point her finger at the strictly-thin modeling and fashion industry. While the young model worked in the business sporting a size 0, in the past seven years she's made a name for herself as a happy, plus-size model at a size 12 (now a size 10).
RENN: "I'M NOT SCARY SKINNY AGAIN!"
After pictures emerged of Renn looking "shockingly thin", she was left defending her frame and figure. Industry expert Nicholas Routzen blogged about the instigating photoshoot and said that Renn doesn't have issues with body weight or eating and that she's "in great shape". However, he says, her looks can and do change based on the camera angle and lighting in any given portrait.
"I don’t want some girl who’s recovering from anorexia to see the picture and think I don’t think that you can be any size and be beautiful. That’s completely not what I’m about," People.com quoted the 5-foot-9 model as saying after losing 25 pounds post-'plus-size' debut.
"Over the years I had made my way down to 165 lbs. and a size 12,” she said, adding that her recent weight loss is a result of working out - Something she had shunned for almost a decade after being super-skinny and "miserable".
PLUS-SIZE MODEL MYTH: "IT MUST BE NICE TO EAT EVERYTHING YOU WANT"
In a past blog post about Crystal Renn at Size 12, one reader retaliated against her fuller frame saying, "It must be nice to eat everything you want!" Unknowing to Renn's motive for doing the French Vogue shoot, her spread does contribute to the belief that "plus-size" models can eat anything they want, penetrating an ignorant belief that being curvy is being unhealthy.
She may not like being labeled a "plus-size" model, but she is. And engaging in a smorgasbord of a photo feast may not have been the best move for breaking trends in popular thought that curvy females are that way because they pig out. Miss Plus-Size America 2003 and spokesperson for the Binge Eating Disorder Association Chenese Lewis says it best.
YOU CAN BE HEALTHY AND NOT BE SKINNY
"There is no part of Crystal Renn that is overweight or obese, so for someone to assume she has unhealthy eating habits because she is a plus-size model is very ignorant," Lewis says of past comments on Renn's weight. "I think people associated the word 'plus-size' with fat and unhealthy and unfarily stereotype people."
She adds, "There is a major misconception that if someone is plus-sized that they have let themselves go or don't care about themselves. And it's simply not true. Someone can have a healthy and active lifestyle and not be skinny."
SO DID SHE OR DIDN'T SHE?
Renn has said before that she loves "the opportunity" as a curvy model "to show that you can be big and beautiful and sexy outside". She says she appreciates her role in the modeling industry because she's able to defy "the narrow interpretations that normally define" the runway.
So in her binge eating photoshoot is she helping to facilitate the narrow-minded facade that bigger girls eat bigger meals?
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