With American women living longer and eating a lot more, there is a large, roomy market for plus-sized clothes.

When will the fat-discrimination end?

American women are LARGE and IN CHARGE, and won't take this sitting down (Well, ok, maybe they will. Standing is real tough on the ankles after five minutes or so. Nomnomnomnomnom.)

Having read both the Broadsheet analysis and the actual New York Times article, I have come to a way to solve the dilemna I and most other non-model/movie star women face when trying to buy anything that doesn't make us look like a tent: We should all become nudists. In fact, that may eventually become the only option left to us.

I can't say or not whether I fit into the "plus" size category. Every time I turn around, it changes. I am a small/medium above the waist and a 14/16 on the bottom. What am I? And, more importantly, where can I shop?

I exercise, shun fast food and generally try to squeeze into ever-shrinking sizes in the name of looking my ripe-young age of 24.

I have little success. I probably should head for the kaftans and mumus and support hose. At least, if the fashion world has its way. Too bad I'm not quite Jaslene Gonzalez, lovely lady that she is.

I have found that the "plus size" category seems to grow to include more sizes every day. I remember when "plus size" meant anything about a size 16. Now, it looks like it means 14 and up. Soon, by my reckoning, it will be anything 10 and above.

Why does increasingly arbitrary number mean I have to dress twenty to thirty years older than I am? Or wear less attractive, duller clothing than my slightly skinnier peers? Why do I have less right to try on clothing in a store than a size zero? And why then, by extension, is my business and - in this economy - my dollar worth less to clothing companies than these other sizes?

Again, I have realized it. It's because, as a "fat" woman, the fashion world has decreed it's no clothes for me. They say, as they sip Evion and wait to vomit up two sprigs of salad, "You, madamoiselle, are unworthy of our valuable polyester and cotton and silk. No patterns or pretty dresses for you! We have decided you are a bad person and, quiet plainly, are only fit to go nude!"

Guess I should start stripping now?

While shopping for Prom dresses this year for my daughter, I found few stores that stocked the dresses at all, the ones that did - had plus sizes. I hope that means that weight discrimination has eased a little.

BTW – in spite of the "recession" the dress we bought was pretty expensive. Now I know why many girls went in homemade dresses this year.

America is NEVER EVER EVER EVER going to go back to being a nation of normal sized people. OBESE is now and forever the new normal. Soon we will look back fondly on those "fit" days when the Average man or woman had a BMI of 40 and was only 100lbs heavier than they are now.

I was at the MDs last week there was A LINE of people in the parking lot waiting to be unloaded from their custom vans. I'm not talking minivan, I'm talking zoo animal sized hydraulic lifts to hoist the ginormous scooters up and down. And these were middle aged people.

And this is in no way a bariatric clinic. This is a GP. We may as well throw up our hands and give up. Life expectancy is going down and now about a quarter of children are diagnosed with T2 diabetes. The elevators at the mall get more use than the escalators and half the parking spaces are handicapped slots.

Obesity is bad for your health. It's not a feminist issue, it's not an identity politics issue. If you are too fat to fit into normal sized clothes or walk 100 yards, you're too fat. You need to lose weight. You need to eat less and exercise more. And it is an aesthetics issue. It's natural for humans--men or women--to look the best they can, and to enjoy the presence of attractive people. Fat people are not and have never been attractive.

To repeat: Get off your fat butts and LOSE SOME WEIGHT! I don't want to hear about "fat pride," or "Fat is fabulous," because it's nothing to be proud of, and no one believes it's fabulous. In case I haven't said it yet, LOSE SOME WEIGHT! Arrrrghhh!

I realize the NY Times doesn't exactly have "reality" in mind when they discuss fashion. But I had to laugh when I read in the article, "offering the hothouse colors and exuberant prints, the ruffles and flounces of their so-called straight-size counterparts". In my experience, plus size clothes have always offered too many of the "hot house colors" and "exuberant prints". Go into any plus-sized department and you'll see plenty of clothes with huge ugly flower prints and garish colors. You'll see ruffles and flounces everywhere. What you won't see is plain, office-friendly clothing. I think department stores must think that fat people don't have jobs. Finding a plain white blouse (that's not low cut or see-through) or a decent pair of black pants is a struggle.

In the world of the NY Times, "fashionable" usually means "garish and ugly", whether it's size 16 or size 0. But most plus size people I know (at least above the age of 20) aren't looking for that kind of "fashion". They're looking for reliable, well made clothes they can wear to work, and that's still in short supply in the plus department - and the stores that offer these kinds of clothes (Ann Taylor, etc.) are the ones getting rid of plus sizes.

.. we need fewer plus-size people - men AND women. Am I the only one who thinks it's ridiculous that being fat, out of shape, pre-diabetic, physically weak and/or immobile and having deteriorating joints considered empowering in any way?

I appreciate that some people have genuine medical issues that make it next to impossible to lose weight, and I am far from svelte myself. It's not always easy to stay fit. But I don't consider my gut beautiful or empowering either.