Barbie Ferreira Rejects the Term "Plus-Size Model"
She explains that the label “others” differing bodies.
Model and actor Barbie Ferreira sat down with British Vogue for a candid interview on body positivity. Ferreira, who recently starred in a Jacquemus campaign shot over FaceTime, revealed that she’s tired of the industry labeling models as “plus-size.” To her, the term simply contributes to the othering of certain bodies.
Ferreira explains that being categorized as “plus-size” was, at the beginning of her career, a good way for her to identify with a community. “…if we didn’t have [those] labels, it would [have felt] very lonely,” she said. “I didn’t feel anything towards them until I was years into it and I was like, ‘OK, we’re still kind of “othering” all these beautiful models.’ This is something I want to reject.”
She also states that receiving constant questions about body positivity doesn’t help normalize diversity. “Because I’m bigger, I get asked about body positivity in everything I do, which is redundant… Stepping into a career that has historically had rigid standards of beauty, people definitely projected me as this body-positive activist and I owned that in the beginning,” she revealed. “But over the years, I’ve found my own version of that, where it’s not just about size. Now I’m kind of more like, ‘Let’s just shake this whole thing up.’”
Head to the British Vogue website to read Ferreira’s full interview.
