Diverse but shallow, unrealistic but influential: Women’s dilemmas when viewing plus-sized models of colour on billboards

In Western women’s clothing marketing, portrayals of slender white female bodies are ubiquitous and unavoidable. However, in 2018, a multitude of images of plus-size models of colour were posted on billboards at bus, train and underground stations in London. We undertook focus groups with women based in London to explore how they made sense of these images. Our findings show participants grappling with two dilemmas: they celebrated that the images of models were more diverse than traditional thin, white models, but they also raised concerns that the racial diversity was shallow and whitewashed, with the thin ideal simply replaced by a new curvy ideal. The participants also wrestled with the dilemma that they were aware the images were manipulated and unrealistic, but they admitted they still aspired to these representations. We argue these public representations of plus-size models are not a cure for the tyranny of thinness but promote new dilemmas that women struggle to negotiate. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)