UK Retailer Under Fire for Selling Women's Clothing in Size 0

Asos, a retailer based in the UK, is fending off criticism for stocking women’s clothing in a size 2, which is a size 0 in the United States.

“Asos has come under fire for stocking ‘dangerous and irresponsible’ size 2 clothing with a 22-inch waist – the same as a six-year-old child,” the Mirror reports. The company defends selling these items, saying it’s catering to more petite women. Asos also says that “cultural, physical and individual differences are to be celebrated.”x

The Mirror notes that Asos, of course, has a point: “While the average woman in the UK is a size 16 with a 34in waist, if a 5ft woman has a 22in waist they would be considered as having a healthy slim BMI.”

In other words, a size 2 woman is not necessarily unhealthy. However, we now live in a world where you can blast away at people who aren’t fat.

Liberal Democrat MP Norman Lamb told The Daily Mail: “It runs the risk of normalising sizes which are extreme for adults. It sends out a very dangerous signal to teenagers and young women.’”

That petite, healthy women exist isn’t a “dangerous signal.”

However, the social justice crowd has turned fat into something to be celebrated, while a healthy BMI is to be shunned, mocked, and eliminated to protect the feelings of others.

Folks, if you want to end body shaming, that’s fine. What you don’t get to do is simply turn it into a one-way street. You don’t get to scream that all bodies are beautiful, then tell a store they’re wrong for selling products that fit some bodies. If Asos isn’t going to provide it, someone else will.

If you want to worry about young girls developing eating disorders, then deal with the myriad other factors that contribute to such behavior. The mere existence of 22-inch waist pants won’t do it. It takes a little bit more than that.