Fashion Faux Pas: Beth Ditto is a punk rock pawn for Gaultier

This morning on Huffington Post there was an article about fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier using punk rock singer Beth Ditto as one of the models in his punk rock themed runway show.  Why is this news?  Because Ditto is an obese woman in a sea of skinny.  How shocking!  How amazing!  How brave!

How dumb.

Don't get me wrong.  I think the overweight and obese have just as much right to look cool and fashionable as the thin.  What bothered me was this comment by Ditto:

"It's really interesting to me that people will look at a thin person and go, 'That's a healthy person'. I want to go, 'Come open my refrigerator and look and then let's talk about what you think is so bad'. To be thin and to stay really thin, sometimes...some people literally do coke all the time. Some people smoke cigarettes instead of eating. That's crazy. But that's 'okay' because you look healthier."

I found this photo of Ditto on her Wikipedia page.  This isn't the body of someone who has healthy eating habits.  This is the body (however Rubenesque and lovely that it may be) of someone who has a weight problem.

I am not saying you MUST be thin.  I have written about the "skinny fat" issue and know from my own struggles with my waist that my pant size has not a lot to do with my amazing resting heart rate (60 bpm!) or my rockin' blood pressure (112/80- suggested optimal!).  I waffle between a size 8 and 10 and my current weight is in the 160's.  I also workout almost everyday and watch what I eat.  What I am saying is it is irresponsible for obese women to say that their body type is the normal type and that being overweight is just fine. 

Love yourself.  Love your mind and your heart and your soul.  But don't fool yourself that loving yourself means being blind to heart attacks, diabetes, joint and muscle pain, skeletal strain, a higher insurance rate, higher airline tickets, more expensive gas.  That isn't love.  That is delusion.

Also, don't you think that Gaultier chose Ditto so we would click on her photos and MAYBE also look at the other thin models and his clothes?  What a way to get the word out.  Nice PR.