The Women’s Corner: The “Fat tax” shames plus-size women, and it needs to stop

Since becoming an “adult” I am now in charge of my own spending. I am now more aware of what things cost – why do things cost so much? – and how often I need to buy them.

Now, shopping for clothes is something I have a love-hate relationship with. I have to be in the mood and looking cute to actually find clothes I like. And I have noticed something that at first confused me, then just angered me.

Being a plus-size girl, I have to buy plus-size clothes. I mainly shop at local retailers, but I also shop around in Wichita too.

But as I go around looking for clothes I like, I find that the sizes that I need are more expensive than those who are meant for someone skinnier.

Why is it that I have to pay more for the exact same thing? Am I being punished for being plus sized?

Women’s clothing already fits smaller and sucks into the body because, for some awful reason, people thought this was a good idea.

But now you’re telling me that I have to pay more for something that should already be sized better in the first place?

I did some research over this, and the biggest contender to my argument is that plus-size clothes have more fabric and that is why they cost more.

This is just a claim full of BS. If this was a valid argument, then size-fours would cost less than size-sixes because a six is “more fabric”.

Unless we start basing cost off of a scale on size, plus-size clothing should not cost more than normal sizes.

It is just another trick that companies pull to get more money from shaming people in society.

I feel like trash when I know that because of my body, I am having to spend more money to cover it.

Even The New York Times did a story over the “fat tax”, and it’s incredibly upsetting. The article talks about how the “fat tax” is basically punishing people for being bigger than those around them and that “it’s cruel and unfair to single out one body type.”

Stores’ higher prices for these clothes are putting those who wear them down into the dirt. It feels like a slight nudge you might get from your family at a get together like “Oh, is that your third slice?”

Because why should it matter Aunt Carol? It is my body and it’s none of your business.

The fashion stores are becoming more condescending by each passing day and it’s sickening.

At the end of the day, companies that hike up the price for plus-size clothing are really just shaming their customers who are “bigger”.

I find it absolutely ridiculous that I have to pay more for clothing because I don’t have the definition of a “normal” sized body.

I find it frustrating and repulsive that companies around the world are stooping to an all-time low.

If they are trying to target plus-sized women, shouldn’t they accommodate to their needs instead of taking advantage of them?

I am not an object. I am a human.

Do not try to shame me for being bigger than what society can handle.

Tabitha Barr is a Nickerson freshman studying Media Communications and Production

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