>"Men of every size have lots of options..."

Spoken like a true feminist. We all know how EVERY fashion show struts 99% guy models and one or 2 female "walking clothes hangers." There are TONS of male supermodels, too, like, er, uh....

>"women...are much harder to fit than men are and arguably need tailoring more than they do."

So send your bills to Yaweh.

> "it takes a pretty tough lady not to feel demoralized when she's wearing ugly clothes..."

Gawd. Who said feminists are over-indulged pampered babies? Think how inspired male combat grunts must be sashaying around in dirt-covered, water-logged, drab UNIFORMS.

>" some of the unkind comments here."

You mean the routine male-bashing that gets cheered?

The economy might be tanking, war breaking out all over, but leave it to the feminist section of Salon to deal with and delve into the REALLY important issues of the day. Remind us again how stupid men are who spend time pimping their rides.

...you may not want to hear it from me, a sometimes fierce (some might say, onbnoxious) critic of feminism, but I think plus size women are sexy. Women are supposed to have curves, dammit. The anorexic ideal is a perversion of God's plan and I'm still against it. That's how much I like plus-sized women.

I can't even find a decent pair of heels that fit, not to mention a rhinestone cat top... while it is true that most clothing is geared toward slender women, men from slim to fat have only a small fraction of commercial clothing options to express themselves... when's the last time you saw a simple men's skirt at Target (not a "kilt")? We don't even have interesting basics. And I'm not referring to crossdressing (which is fine to do), but rather the pathetic selection of clothes cut specifically for men.

Just traipsing through TJMaxx and I see hundreds of racks of all kinds of small sizes, and 2 small racks of 16-3x Maybe 10 feet of clothing. I asked the mgr to ask mgmnt to stock more larger sizes and here is the comment, Division Mgr said "if they sell more, they will get more large sizes to sell". Well, the caveat is IF they had more, they could sell more. Ridiculous.

The place is packed with smaller sizes. Didn't the message get to them that the average size in USA is 14/16? AVERAGE.

Why is it the designer/manufacturer of said larger sizes, think that we need larger Arm HOles, we need larger sleeves-usually.

Also, why are they all so damn ugly, the larger the size, the uglier the print.

Other gripe is that in Macy's Plus size as well as other stores, "THEY" stock primarily, casual shirts,shorts, pants, sweat suits, jogging junk, you name it, but to find a business attire, or dressy style, FUGGETABOUTIT.

Skinny designers, I hope you 'eat a hamburger'.

I scuba dive, and I am female. If you wear larger than a 10 womens, you have to custom order your dive suit. Basically a woman taller than 5'6'' and 130 pds would probably need to order her suit , ie not fat, but not petite - but a guy on his way to 300 pounds and fat , can get a off the shelf suit without paying the extra for a custom order.

Look at suits for work, men's warehouse, it doesn't matter how tall or short/fat or skinny he can get a suit for work. For women if you are not the right height and weight finding proper work cloths is a nightmare. So the whole bullshit about the market not being able to have the varity is bull, or men would have the same problem.

Being tall or short is almost as bad as over weight - when it comes to finding women's clothing, something guys don't go through. And I don't understand how the fashion industry thinks this model of business is profitable long term.

It just should not be that difficult for women to find the clothes they need to go to work or school or interview. I'm not talking high fashion, just your basic clothes to get by, and yet it is. And everyone who points out that men do not have a similar problem is right, they have a lot more access to larger sizes.

To everyone who felt the need to give advice like just start walking...great! Now, if I could only walk, I am sure that would work just swell. In the meantime, the need to dress appropriately for work, etc., is still a very real need.

I guess I've been living in a cave, because I don't have clue one who this Beth Ditto character is or why I'd want to buy her clothes.

I was a teen in the 80s and I definitely had to struggle to find the kinds of clothing I wanted to wear -- and I wasn't that big. It was just that the clothing was that small.

Like someone else pointed out, all you have to do is be bigger than a size 12 (you know, like MOST women are) and you're somehow a "plus" size, at least on some racks.

Things are so much better now than they were in the 1980s, although some of the haters whose impulse-control deficiencies have made them post mean things here don't seem to think that's necessarily a good thing. Something people who care about the truth have come to realize is that you really *don't* have to be skinny (or even thin) to be healthy. Body weight is one of many elements that determine health and much of our weight is hard wired.

But weight bashers aren't really interested in health. It's just a stick to beat fat or plump people with.

Back to clothing... I buy a lot of my garments from Torrid, especially when it stops trying to be like Old Navy and stays true to its Hot Topic roots. I was a punk in the 80s, so that means a lot to me now that goth is part of our culture -- even for those of us with plush bods. I've discovered a few nice things at The Avenue, Lane Bryant (talk about a store that's changed!), Fashion Bug and online.

As for bringing the 80s back. Yes, it was inevitable and yes there were even a few things worth bringing back, but I remember them when they were happening and don't feel compelled to relive the horror.

Other folks can have the metallic pink leggings and slouch sweaters, I'll stick with my classic black, thanks. Fat girls may wear it to look "slimmer" but I wear it because it just looks so damn good on me. :-)