Curvy Women: Hollywood’s Hot Trend That Might Last
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AMC TV(LOS ANGELES) — You may have noticed them on Mad Men, starring in their own sitcoms, or rocking the red carpet at the American Music Awards: curvy women, from Christina Aguilera to Christina Hendricks, are raising their profile in Hollywood.
But according to America’s first plus-sized supermodel, Emme Aronson, the rise of full-figured women is more about their talent than their curves.
“The actresses don’t want to say, ‘I’m curvy,'” Aronson told ABC News. “These actresses want to shout, ‘I’m talented.’ If they continue doing their incredible work, they’re in it to win it.”
Still, there’s been a shift. Take Aguilera and Lady Gaga, who both recently gained weight and aren’t trying to hide it.
“They’re bragging about it. Attitude changes everything,” Merle Ginsberg, a senior writer at The Hollywood Reporter, told ABC News. “Beyonce and Rihanna are not reed thin, but they are wildly sexy. I think multi-culturalism has affected this and it all trickles down from television and media.”
Aronson believes that for this trend to continue, curvy women need to score more substantial parts, like Lena Dunham and Mindy Kaling’s roles as star and creator on their TV series, Girls and The Mindy Show.
“We need to see good parts, well-written scripts that’s not always the Melissa McCarthy being a fat girl,” she said.
The trend on screen reflects what’s happening in the real world. The average weight of an American woman over the age of 20 is 166 pounds, according to the CDC. The average size waist is 37.5 inches, which corresponds to a size 16 to 18.
Magazines such as Seventeen and Glamour have already started showing diverse women of all sizes along with female empowering articles. For its November issue, Cosmopolitan Australia featured plus-size model Robyn Lawley in a swimwear photo shoot.
“These women are particularly bold,” Ginsberg said. “They’ve probably, without knowing it, reinvented sexiness in America and with the help of ladies like Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey, brought back the 1950’s bombshell.”
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio