Tess Holliday Apologizes For Saying That ‘Black Men Love Me’

Photo: Instagram 

29-year-old Tess Holliday emerged on the scene flipping a metaphorical middle-finger to the fashion industry. Her size-22 frame defied model expectations in an industry that celebrates stick-figured women, and Holliday served all-comers when she was crowned the first plus-size supermodel.

Most recently, the Laurel, Mississippi born-and-bred talent was featured on the cover of People magazine, yet it is her even more current interview with The Guardian that is raising eyebrows. Last year, after becoming a body positive advocate, Holliday became a presence on TV, around the globe, and in her chat with The Guardian she doubles-down on the double standard in fashion. She explained that she’s fine with being called ‘fat,’ saying, “To me, it’s just a word, but it wasn’t until I discovered the body positive community that I became OK with it. I’ve been called fat my whole life. I am fat, so it’s kind of silly to get mad about it,” she said.

Becoming ‘The Fat Queen,’ might be empowering to those who identify with her standards, yet her other commentary has been seen less than positive than her body image. While posing for her shoot in New York City in her underwear, Holliday was approached by black men who had something cheeky to say about her frame. When she sat down with The Guardian to rehash the moment, she said something that she’s now been apologizing for. “I do admit that black men love me,” Holliday said. “I always forget that, and then I come to a black neighborhood and I remember.” Almost instantly, think pieces, Twitter retweets, and opinions were being bandied about like cannon fire on an open sea.

The Root, Ravishly, and xoJane all have their opinions on the manner. In context, Holliday’s quote sits in this paragraph in The Guardian profile:

We’re in a cafe, finally sitting down after a six-hour shoot that’s had Holliday traipsing blocks in oppressive heat and then a rainstorm. Throughout, she’s been a hilarious corrective to the notion of models as mute and biddable clotheshorses. At one point, an African American guy, middle-aged, said something appreciative as he walked by.

“What do guys think they’ll achieve by yelling something?” she asked, shifting her weight and adjusting the cape primly. “They’re like: ‘She’ll love this, I’ll definitely get her number.’” A pause, and then she added, with some satisfaction, “I do admit that black men love me. I always forget that, and then I come to a black neighbourhood and I remember.” And no one quite knew what to say. Later, finally and effortfully manoeuvred into some lethal-looking Christian Louboutin stilettos, adding height to her 5ft 5in, she’d calmly told the photographer: “If you’re not shooting my shoes, I will f**k you up.” Contextually, it should be noted that Holliday had earlier been dealing with some shocked/surprised looks during this shoot, so it seems like some positive response was something she welcomed.

What Tess Holliday naively fails to realize is that the industry she is in does not care about her as an individual.

The ‘Fat’ movement has been placed on her, but she is not representative of the total scale of plus size people. Her apology in an attempt to mask the failings that were caught and reported on by the media hints at another level of neglect. While she is notoriously unashamed of her curves, Tess Holliday has proven an ignorance prevalent in the fashion industry, especially when it comes to persons of color. Why do black men have to be labeled less than who they are? Or even better, why are people outside of the color barrier able to place black men in such a limiting box? The levels of diversity in the world of fashion are slowly changing, but clearly, Holliday is unaware of how white privilege purveys public consciousness.

Danielle Belton of The Root poignantly pointed out the gaffe, saying, “Good for her,” in a reactions piece featured on the website. “I also want to add that ‘black guys like me’ too, if we’re only basing this on who hollers at you on the street,” she wrote. “And if we’re talking about men who are straight, there’s a dude for every kind of lady person and I HIGHLY doubt she polled ‘all’ the black guys to get this opinion.” As a white women, there are still luxuries that she can afford that aren’t offered to ethnic females. In her apology (which you can see in full on the next page), Tess brings the conversation back to her #EffYourBeautyStandards rally cry, but fails to see the effects her words have cause. In an industry where more than 80 percent of the models in it are white, Holliday’s attempt at humor falls on deaf ears.

When black men and women aren’t being labeled as some sort of terrorist or thug, they are being targeted by the police, or slighted in the media.

Tess Holliday putting black men in the category of cat-caller doesn’t expound on just how vast and indescribable they truly are. Even the person conducting the interview was shocked that Holliday would say such a remark, writing, “No one quite knew what to say,” in response to her size-22 comments. Sure, the media and the industry will forgive Tess Holliday, and hope that the world will continue spinning. But people underrepresented whose color is black and brown might have trouble considering her as the people’s fat champ, and it shows, as the plus-size supermodel has come out to apologize for her commentary.

[via Jezebel, The Guardian]

On the following pages, we have Tess Holliday’s Facebook apology, plus reactions from the Twitterverse over her comments. Do you think her career will be able to bounce back from this? Speak on it!

The post Tess Holliday Apologizes For Saying That ‘Black Men Love Me’ appeared first on StyleBlazer.