Lululemon controversy stokes already toxic media culture

Lululemon Athletica founder issued an apology to workers for fallout from his putting his foot in his mouth on Bloomberg TV this month. However, his comment that women whose thighs rub together "don't work" for Lululemon pants damages more than the company's reputation.

Lululemon has been in the news lately because the brand's founder, Chip Wilson, told Bloomberg News that when his $100 pants wear out more quickly than his cheaper competitors' do, it's women's fault. Women across North America were shocked to hear him claim that when Lululemon pants wear out too quickly, it's because women's bodies aren't built right – specifically, that their thighs are rubbing together.

I've got news for Chip Wilson: thighs that rub together are a physiologically normal trait in adult women. Implying that women's thighs shouldn't actually rub together is irresponsible.

Here's why: We live in a media culture that is toxic to women and girls. As a professor of advertising and media studies, I know firsthand that advertisements and magazines depict women with an idealized, extremely thin body type that is unattainable for the vast majority of people. In fact, most people don't realize that Photoshop isn't just used for retouching wrinkles and acne and for whitening teeth: it's regularly used to make models' waists and limbs dramatically smaller – so small that the proportions are physically impossible. And yet these images are so routine that we now see them as normal.

When we women look in the mirror and compare ourselves to the unattainable ideal, we fall short of the ideal – but we don't understand that the models themselves don't meet this ideal, either! Recently, a lot of young women have begun wishing that they could have a 'thigh gap,' just like that shown on models. There are entire web sites dedicated to this desire. But chasing the thigh gap is actually more likely to cause women to develop an eating disorder than skinny legs.

When I listened to Chip Wilson's interview and heard him say that Lululemon pants wear out quickly because women's thighs rub together, it really got my attention. Most women's thighs rub together – even those of us who are quite thin! Lululemon is supposed to be about women's health and fitness. By blaming women's bodies for a defect with his company's pants, Wilson is implying that a thigh gap is part of a normal, healthy body – and in the current context of our society and media, that's dangerous.

So, my Brave Girls Alliance colleague Marci Warhaft-Nadler and I put our heads together on the subject. Marci is a body image expert and an eating disorder survivor, and she agreed that Wilson's comments are dangerous and irresponsible. Together, we came up with a plan: To speak back to Wilson and Lululemon with a Change.org petition. Wilson is Canada's 10th-richest man, and Lululemon is the 4th most profitable retailer in the U.S. Being wealthy means having power. And there is no excuse for a man as prominent and wealthy as Wilson to body shame his own customers. He must be held accountable for his words.

We want Wilson to apologize to women for blaming their bodies for Lululemon's defective products. Although he posted an apology to YouTube recently, it wasn't to his customers; it was to Lululemon employees. And in that video, he apologized only for the repercussions of his Bloomberg interview – not for his words themselves. A week has gone by, and he has yet to show any understanding that he was body-shaming women or any remorse for doing so.

We also want Lululemon to pledge to manufacture clothing in larger sizes--at a minimum, sizes 14 and 16. The fact that their clothing line tops out at a size 12 is preposterous. First of all, size 12 is the average size among women in the U.S. and Canada. Secondly, it's entirely possible to be healthy while being a size 12 or larger. Weight is not the only marker of health! If Lululemon is a brand for women who want to be or become healthy, why shouldn't women of all sizes have access to it? Perhaps Lululemon is using thinness as a status symbol, but that's not right, either. Attention to our petition is on the rise. We've gathered nearly 1,200 signatures, and counting. Every time the petition is signed, Change.org delivers an email message to Lululemon. Together, our voices will be heard, and we can make a difference in the way business leaders speak about women's bodies. 

Sign the petition today at change.org/lululemon.

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best family and parenting bloggers out there. Our contributing and guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor, and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. Rebecca Hains blogs at rebeccahains.wordpress.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Lululemon controversy stokes already toxic media culture
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2013/1114/Lululemon-controversy-stokes-already-toxic-media-culture
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe