Jamelia sparks fury after arguing plus size clothes shouldn't be available on the high-street
The singer argued that bigger fashion promoted an unhealthy lifestyle
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Your support makes all the difference.Jamelia has ignited anger from people of all sizes across the UK by arguing that plus-size and size-zero clothes should only be sold in specialist stores.
Speaking on Loose Women yesterday, Jamelia said: "I think everyone should have access to lovely clothes, but I do not think it's right to facilitate people living an unhealthy lifestyle."
Appearing to argue that the solution to the current obesity crisis is shaming people trying to find something to wear, she added: "I don't believe stores should stock clothes below or above a certain weight. They should be made to feel uncomfortable when they go in and can't find a size."
"It shouldn't be normalised in high street stores. They should have specialist shops."
Plus-size fashion blog Slink posted an eloquent riposte to Jamelia's idea that bigger and smaller clothes should be fazed out of the high street.
"The truth is body image and body size is a a hugely complicated issue and flippant but impact full, uninformed opinions like Jamelia’s are definitely harmful," it reads.
"Dresses do not facilitate an unhealthy lifestyle," the post argues. "Low wages, cheap fast food, expensive good food, lack of access to good food and gyms, education, time poor etc (you get the picture) facilitate unhealthy lifestyles. Nice clothes and not being shamed whilst finding said clothes do not cause unhealthy lifestyle choices.
"In fact if you feel good about yourself or are facilitated in feeling mentally strong you are more likely to make healthy lifestyle choices… whatever your size."
Samantha Arditti, head of Be Real, the UK’s national movement for body confidence, said that people should be allowed to buy clothes that fit them, and that her remarks would not help body confidence.
“We were surprised to hear Jamelia’s comments on Loose Women yesterday. Everybody deserves to be able to buy clothes that fit and they feel comfortable and confident in and we believe that retailers need to embrace diversity and reflect back to us what we really look like.
"We know from Public Health England that two thirds of people in the UK are overweight and that many people need to take better care of their health. However, ‘fat shaming’ and making people feel worse about themselves is not proven to have a positive impact - when we feel bad about how we look, we make bad choices about our health, and we're more likely to be depressed, have an addiction, or suffer from an eating disorder. According to research we did last autumn, 28 per cent of people don’t exercise because of how they feel about their appearance - it can become a vicious cycle.
"We need to help everyone to take a positive attitude to their bodies and to divert the focus from appearance onto health and wellbeing. Parents, friends, businesses and celebrities like Jamelia can play an important role in helping us make this attitude shift a reality.”
Jamelia has said her remarks were misinterpreted, and tweeted:
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