'Normal' Sized Mannequins... What is 'Normal' Anyway?

I've just been on Facebook and this image of 'normal sized' mannequins popped up on my news feed as a friend of mine shared it on her timeline (therefore sorry about the image quality). This story seems to have originated around March this year, but seemingly escaped my attention back then (not surprising, with everything that was going on at that time), and I thought it apt to post about it; especially with my bikini body challenge that I set myself still going strong - I'll be updating you on this soon, but also continuing the challenge, since I'm still not at my goal size/shape.

The department store (in Sweden) was apparently criticised for introducing these 'normal sized' mannequins into their store; the mannequins were a size 12 and size 16. Apparently this 'condones obesity' or something equally as bizarre. For a start, I've never seen an obese size 12 girl, have you? This kind of thing really does my head in, as this is one of the reasons that girls, myself included, are never happy with their body.

Left: a standard mannequin. Right: a 'normal' size 12 mannequin.

What gets me though, is that women come in all shapes and sizes, so what constitutes 'normal' when it comes to sizing of clothes/mannequins and even models? I've seen both size 12 and size 16 women with more wobbly bits than these mannequins, so in a way, the mannequins are still misrepresenting their respective sizes to a degree.

I also think there's a place for every size to be represented when it comes to mannequins and that includes those for the naturally very thin/petite - I don't think we should forget that not all tiny girls are anorexic, or that every larger girl is unhealthy or greedy.

I get that the brands/stores want the clothes to sit well on the mannequins (and models) in order to capture peoples attention and translate to sales, but is that actually saying that unless you are a perfect size x with no wobbly bits or imperfections, that the clothes won't look just as good on you? If that's the case, why do we even bother with these clothes?

I don't really know where I am going with this rant, but I felt compelled to write about it all the same as I am a bit sick of seeing the media's perception of beauty all over the place, namely that we should all aim for absolute perfection, and if you're not perfect, then you don't matter.

Is this something that winds you up as much as it does me?

This post originated at www.thebeautyscoop.co.uk