Anna Loves

Is “Curvy” a Cut-Down?

April 2, 2011 / 2 Comments

Scott Schuman who helms the widely read fashion blog, The Sartorialist, recently came under fire for describing another blogger as “curvy.”

Schuman wrote of fellow fashion blogger, Angelica Ardasheva, “I loved that she’s a bigger, curvier girl than most of the other bloggers who you see in the press and tend to represent the genre.” He added, “The subtle thing she achieves so successfully in these two looks is to complement the sturdy but beautiful shape of her legs with an equally strong shoe.”

The entry prompted over a thousand responses. Some readers were offended:

Your patronising comments on her style, calling her ‘bigger’, ‘curvier’ and back handed compliment on her dress sense just serve to further alienate readers who are not a sample size, which I would assume is the larger portion of your audience.

Other readers had no issue:

i am a woman with a very similar body type, if not more curvy, and find it hard it exhausting how badly everyone is taking your comments. i don’t see what you said as offensive, if anything i think the fact that you said you loved it is being overlooked. it must be hard to comment on a woman’s body type at all with all of us feeling constant personal evaluation.

Schuman himself rebutted:

A number of the commenters are upset by the word “curvy.” They feel I should have used the word “normal.” However, normal is relative. There is a young lady on my team who is 5’0″, and another who is 5’9″. Which would be “normal”? […] Remember, curvy is a body shape, not a weight. To be honest, you can’t really see in these photographs most of the curves – chest, stomach, hip – this woman has.

What do you think about what Schuman said? Offensive, or just off-the-cuff?

Read  Schuman’s original post on The Sartorialist

Read other articles about the conversation Schuman’s comment started at The Huffington Post or Jezebel