ASOS Faces Backlash Over Controversial Caption on Instagram
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Clothing retailer ASOS inadvertently unleashed a war of the words when it labeled a woman on their Instagram page as "plus-size."
To put it simply, people freaked out.
The page was flooded with comments like "How ridiculous that this women is considered ‘plus size.’ What a world we live in."
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
ASOS tried to appease their angry fans and made things even worse.
They removed the "plus size" caption and replaced it with "asosModel and travel film-maker @NaomiShimada is all over this season’s fave ASOS slip dress. #AsSeenOnMe." But they really messed up when they explained why they did that:
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
By referring to "plus-size" as a "whack term," they wound up offending even more people, people who argued that there's nothing wrong with the term "plus size."
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
And some pointed out that by removing the "plus-size" wording, it made ASOS look as though they thought it was "sending a signal that large = bad."
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
"You can see the culture of hate/self-hate we're up against," the commenter writes, "so give your Curve customers some actual support." (Curve is ASOS's term for "plus-size.")
ASOS has some thoughts on the debate:
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
But then yet another voice points out that perhaps the issue isn't the term "plus-size" at all, but that ASOS was labeling this particular woman as "plus-size" that was so outrageous:
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
Perhaps this one comment puts it best:
ASOS/Instagram - instagram.com
[H/T Yahoo!]