I know for boys there's the husky size, i'm not sure what exists for girls.

I think they just use "plus size" now. Sites like Jeeny Beans and Huskyz say "plus size" in their headers. I've seen lots of use of "big kid" or "bigger kid" too.

I know for girls that the trend is to emphasize the slimmer version. Frex: You'll have the traditional sizes in numbers (6, 6x, 7/8, etc.), but then there's the 6-slim, 6-x-slim, 7/8-slim, etc.

Size "stop feeding your kid McDonalds?"

Haha that's so funny mordicai! Oh wait, I don't think "funny" is the word I'm looking for. Juvenile? Imbecile? Trollish?

Here’s what I’ve learned from reading Sociological Images:

It’s very bad for people to judge others on the basis of widely-held standards of appearance. Can’t dislike someone because they’re fat and ugly; can’t even mention that they might be chubby. Can’t joke, as GHW Bush did, that you’d prefer not to have sex with someone you find unattractive.

It’s also very bad for companies to try to sell stuff by using those standards – i.e., using models that most people in the culture consider sexy.

Also very bad to prefer people who conform to conventional categories of gender or to look quizzically at people who choose some gender or amalgam of genders that we don’t even have a word for.

Also very bad to use metaphors based on physical categories people find less desirable (“a lame excuse,” “deaf to reason,” etc.).

But judging people because they prefer polyester, even when it was in fashion, that’s OK. Their preference for polyester blends is “distressing.” But who buys polyester clothes? Here’s a hint: look at the price tag on an all-wool or all-cotton sweater, then look at the price tag on a poly-blend sweater.

I might have thought the “distressing” remark was a joke, but from reading Sociological Images I’ve learned that we have to take jokes literally.

Uh, Anon, have you ever met a sociologist before? Picking apart surface things to reveal the seething, offensive goo inside is our bread and butter. It's fun! Try it. For instance, I could look at the fact that you decided to post your comment anonymously and decide that you a) know you sound like a moron and b) are a little spineless.

As children, my sister and I both wore those "chubby" sizes from Sears, which was the only retailer that had plus sizes for children in those days (early 1970s), as I recall. Their plus sizes for girls were called "chubby" and plus sizes for boys were called "husky". When my sister's step-daughters from her first marriage need plus-size clothes in the late 1980s, Sears children's line for girls was called "Pretty Plus". I don't know what the boys line was called. By the mid- and late 1990s, when she had a daughter in her second marriage who needed plus size clothes, she had a hard time finding them. She just bought larger sizes and hemmed a lot. [I have no children, but I learn a lot about children's culture from being an auntie to more than a dozen nephews and nieces (not all from this sister!)]

And yes, Anon, Deana, and everyone else, children in the 1970s wore a lot of polyester. Our moms loved it because it was cheap and easy to wash and dry and hard for energetic, active kids to destroy.

"Our kids' clothes are made for mothers"

Oh dear. That says everything. *cringe*

@Anon: The main point here is that it's interesting they use a term that today isn't so much object as insulting. You hurt most people's feelings if you call them chubby, and the modern clothing industry tries to use less loaded words, like "Plus Size" for adult and adolescent women.

As for terms I've heard, I've definitely heard "Husky" for boys, and I think clothes for younger kids can be called "for big kids." Not sure what they use for girls, but they probably just use "Plus Size" once they're selling clothes for kids old enough to read.

Kids generally wear looser, more casual clothes now, so the precise sizing probably isn't so important as it was in the 1970s--a bigger kid can go a size up, or choose a baggier style, without it being specifically labeled "chubby," and still match their peers' styles. (The huge baggy long-shorts marketed to teen boys of all shapes are one obvious example.)

But yeah, I was head-to-toe polyester playclothes as a little kid too--my mother loved that stuff, and still does. I don't think "fashionable" was part of the equation--polyester kids' clothes were easier to care for and lasted longer to become handmedowns. (They just felt nasty.)

When I was an "chubby" kid growing up in rural north eastern Nevada in the early 80s, the Sears catalog referred to clothes that would fit me as "Husky".

It always seems a little strange to me that people assume that if I, as a sociologist, point out some of the cultural themes going on in an image, TV show, etc., that I automatically hate it and am super-angry about it. For instance, I wasn't pissed about this post--I just found it striking that she was considered "chubby." I watch TV shows that I think have all kinds of interesting or insane or messed up themes in them; I still enjoy them, even while taking note of those things and often thinking they're stupid and wishing they didn't resort to such obvious jokes, plotlines, etc.

I wore lots of polyester as a kid, and my grandma and great-grandma wore lots of it too. It's gotten better over the years, but the stuff that was around in the 70s and 80s was so rough and scratchy, I do not remember it with warmth (though wearing it often made me feel hot and clammy). Clearly parents dressed kids in it mostly b/c it was nearly indestructible, but it was also very popular because it seemed like this new wonder-fabric that our space-age scientific genius had given us. Surely jet packs were soon to follow!

Another theme going on in the ad: Women imposing patriarchal beauty standards on other women.

FWIW, I agree with Gwen, and not just about being puzzled that Sears thinks the girl in picture is chubby. (As a kid, I wore Huskies.) As sociologists, what we do is point out the underlying assumptions about sex, age, race, class, sexuality, bodies, etc. that some cultural artifact illustrates or uses. When we make moral judgments about those assumptions and ideas, we're no longer being social scientists. That doesn't mean we shouldn't make moral judgments-- it's inevitable that we do -- but we should also recognize that we do so in our role as citizens, not as social scientists.

Note also that although the girl in the picture is black, her hair has been straightened (and cut in a style I at least associate with little white girls of the period, having been one and worn a similar hairstyle) and she's wearing white leotards, and has been photographed against a light-coloured background, and in light-coloured clothing. Besides categorising her all those other ways, they've also done a really good job of "whitening" her as much as possible.

Besides categorising her all those other ways, they’ve also done a really good job of “whitening” her as much as possible.

It seems like they picked a fairly dark-skinned girl, however. I don't know what to make of that, just that it seems they *could* have gone even whiter if they wanted to. (Goodness knows I'm not attributing a *moral* reason to the choice, just wondering if they found this contrast more marketable somehow. :p)

I'm curious about the publication, as advertisers rarely use a black person as the main character in ads meant to appeal to a white audience (unless it's for one of the reasons explored in previous SI postings). Is this an ad from Ebony or the like?
If it is indeed an ad from a 'white-targeted' publication, then there is an interesting argument to be made that the choice of a black child for a socially stigmatized product (clothes for fat kids) is intentional in other ways (perhaps to generate the recognition of the product's availablity at Sears for potential white buyers while simultaneously not prompting an uncomfortable mental identification between the parents' own kids and 'fatties' in need of 'special' clothes). However, it's also true that during this period, the crazy anti-fat hysteria of the present day was not as evident, and so the stigma was certainly not as acute.

Call it trollish Sarah, if you like, but the childhood obesity epidemic is not a nation-wide "glandular" problem, & a lot of "fat acceptance" is code for "wouldn't it be easier to not WORRY about chronic health problems? Eating properly & exercising sound like more work than just saying chubby kids are okay!"

So was it a joke? Sure. Was it a troll? Not a bit.

Larger-sized girls' clothes are called "plus," just like women's clothes. They're mostly not available in stores, but you can get them online from the Gap, Old Navy, and Children's Place. Larger-sized boys' clothes are still called "husky."

I'm so sick of the arrogance of those who have bodies that our current society finds acceptable. Fat people do not necessarily eat more, eat worse, or exercise less than thin people. Fat does not inherently equal unhealthy, and thin does not inherently equal healthy. To think otherwise is an *assumption*. A very bad and unscientific one that does nothing but fuel bigotry and line the pockets of the diet industry.

I remember the Sears catalog using "extra special" for girls in the mid to late 80s. My sister would always laugh at that.

The young model is chubby. Why are commenters asserting that she is not?

I believe the equivilent of "Husky" for girls is "Shame."

"chubby" "fat," "skinny," "slim"... it's all relative, anonymous. i think the vast majority of folks who look at this little girl don't see "chubby" at all. they see normal and healthy. that's why this ad is so shocking. perhaps you should put down your Vogue magazine and re-evaluate your own standards of healthy if you see this little girl as "chubby."

This post brought up a lot of upsetting memories. I wore "Pretty Plus" as a kid in the 70s and 80s, and shopping for them was always a horror show. The clothes weren't as cute as for the smaller girls, and my mother was just mortified to have to be in that section.

Odd thing is - looking back on pictures of myself, I wasn't fat! I was taller than pretty much all the kids, and just a bit bigger all around, but I was basically concave. So looking at this pic of a girl who really does not look the least bit chubby makes me feel angry on her behalf...and on my own behalf, as a kid who had the temerity to be bigger than the others.

I'd like to use this image in one of my seminars - would it be possible to get citation info for where it was published? Thanks!

This brings back memories. As a girl in the 70s, the larger clothes I got were plus, but I recall they used a plus sign instead of the word; for a long while I wore size "6+". In boys jeans I wore "husky", and I had to get boys jeans because girls jeans didn't come in plus sizes until the late 70s. And it is so true that these clothes were to make moms happy, at least in my case.

Like Kelly, looking back on old photos of me I realize I wasn't fat at all. But I was teased for being fat, even when I was 18 years old and wearing a size 6.

i was a chubby child growing up in the 90s and i remember having seen the term "plus-size" around in clothing stores, thing is, when i look at pictures of myself when i was 6 to about 12 years of age, i don't believe i was fat at all, and barely deserved the term "chubby" - yet, a few years ago my mother and i were watching some interview with a mother and her little girl, i think we was about 6, over childhood obesity, and the child was very, very obese. frighteningly, to the point where you worried for her health. my mother put on a saddened face and said "that's what you used to look like when you were little"

i've heard about similar things happening with my female friends in their childhoods, so i was just kind of wondering if mothers are becoming overly critical of their daughters, or has this kind of thing been around a long time? my guess is the latter, considering the "but her Mother does" line in the sears advertisement.

Ummmm.....after working for years in nursing, with a lot of people ranging from "heavy" or larger to just plain fat, I have a statement. Complain all you like about categorizing, I know few fat people who actually DO exercise, eat decent food---and not all the time! Quantity counts, too. There is an element of self-discipline involved, just as with any other now-medicalized lack of willpower---alcoholism, drug abuse, etc.

The fact that Americans, in general, eat 2-3 times as much food as almost any other culture really does have something to do with how fat we are....and it is a shameful waste of the world's resources. Only in this country is obesity a problem in poverty.

I think, in this discussion of "chubby" (and no, I don't think the first girl is chubby at all, at least not by today's standards) is the fact that chubby has gone from being a one-off to being the norm. Sure, it's okay for a kid to be a little "chubby," but is it good or healthy for ALL kids to be chubby? When chubby becomes the new standard (and it has), why aren't we concerned about that?

Again - acceptance of all body types is a good thing and acceptance of individual overweight adults is fine too, but acceptance that everyone's getting bigger because of unhealthy habits? Never okay in my book.

"Only in this country is obesity a problem in poverty."

What a load of rubbish. Try looking outside of your borders and you'll see that obesity in poverty is rife across many cultures and nations. It has more to do with the fact that it's MORE AFFORDABLE and MORE FEASIBLE DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS to live on chips and curry sauce than healthy food.

Mordacai, Lisa and anyone else who smugly assumes they know what's going on, I have news for you: for many people this is a social problem, not a "willpower/addiction" or "laziness" problem. And the only way it is going to be fixed is if we radically change our ideas about distribution of wealth. Deal with it.

Also, as Lisa noted, there are many, many fat people who eat healthy food, in no greater quantities than "thin" or "normal weight" people, exercise a reasonable amount and, guess what?, STILL STAY FAT. You can scream and cry about this all you want. You can throw yourselves on the ground and hold your breath till you turn blue and pass out, but that fact is not going to change.

I've said this before, and no doubt I'll have to say it again: as far as exercise goes, I have done more than any of you could ever dream of doing. I have walked and ridden bikes across continents. I have swum oceans. I have lifted ton upon ton of free weights. And yes, before you tell me I must have been doing it all wrong, I have been properly trained in all these activities, and my fat ass have been complimented by many a trainer and physiotherapist for my impeccable technique. As far as food goes, I have starved myself. I have counted calories. I have counted fat grams. I have followed a "reasonable," balanced diet. And again, to circumvent the inevitable sneering about how I must not know what that really means, when I talk to the dietitian I work with, she is amazed at the depth of nutrtitional knowledge I have as a layperson. I HAVE DONE EVERY DAMN THING "RIGHT" AND I. AM. STILL. FAT. Now get over it and stop demonising people by spouting off about things you have no understanding of.

those are some cute and pretty clothes to wear i like stuff like that it is stylelish to i want to make
clothes and be a fashion desingner
to. it is so fun to make
up your own
clothes desingner
i like to wear pretty clothes because i am a artest and
i like to do pretty
things.

We need this trend to come back since everyone is obese now, and saying anything negative about it is verboten. Unfortunately, being obese is a death sentence. Fat acceptance is one of the worst things to ever happen to the planet.

Omg i remember being so petrified of having to wear chubette size clothing as a preteen by my mom, that it triggered a major bout of anorexia and obsession with my weight!

Omg i remember being so petrified of having to wear chubette size clothing as a preteen by my mom..It actually triggered a major bout of anorexia and obsession with my weight!

If you were huskie then or chubby you are probably pretty much the same now advertising was pretty much in you face back then and now we are all a bunch of whiny cry babies who get mad about everything people and parents need to take responsibility for how are children are raised
I miss the old catalogs and I was a skinny kid but at 62 now I’m not skinny but not huskie

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