<div>For two and a half years, Amanda Czerniawski was a<br />sociologist turned plus-size model. Journeying into a world where, as a size<br />10, she was not considered an average body type, but rather, for the fashion<br />industry, “plus-sized,†Czerniawski studied the standards of work and image<br />production in the plus-sized model industry.<br /><em>Fashioning Fat</em> takes us through a model’s day-to-day activities,<br />first at open calls at modeling agencies and then through the fashion shows and<br />photo shoots. Czerniawski also interviewed 35 plus-size models about their<br />lives in the world of fashion, bringing to life the strange contradictions of<br />being an object of non-idealized beauty.<br /></div><br /><div> </div><br /><div><em>Fashioning Fat </em>shows<br />us that the mission of many of these models is to challenge our standards of<br />beauty that privilege the thin body; they show us that fat can be sexy. Many plus-size<br />models do often succeed in overcoming years of self-loathing and shame over<br />their bodies, yet, as Czerniawski shows, these women are not the ones in charge<br />of beauty’s construction or dissemination. At the corporate level, the fashion<br />industry perpetuates their objectification. Plus-size models must conform to an<br />image created by fashion’s tastemakers, as their bodies must fit within<br />narrowly defined parameters of size and shape—an experience not too different<br />from that of straight-sized models. Ultimately, plus-size models find that they<br />are still molding their bodies to fit an image instead of molding an image of<br />beauty to fit their bodies. A much-needed behind-the-scenes look at this<br />growing industry, <em>Fashioning Fat</em> is a<br />fascinating, unique, and important contribution to our understanding of beauty.</div><br /><div> </div><br /><div><img src="http://nyupress.org/teachguide/pdf_icon.gif" alt="" />  Instructor's Guide     </div>