Pan Out, Assholes!

Dear whoever makes music videos happen,

I wish you'd stop making videos where plus size performers are only shown as bodiless wonders with only bust shots. Perhaps the creative directors/camera person of these videos could zoom out, so we could get more than a few seconds of body shots of artists who are body proud like Adele and Beth Ditto.

This doesn't happen in all videos, but I've noticed a bit of a trend that disappoints me when I go to watch talented artists in videos which, although beautiful and great quality, come off as static or limited.

For example, Adele's "Cold Shoulder":



Or Gossip's "Heavy Cross" (Not really a "static" video but the few times they do show her body it's dark, unfocused and only a glimpse):



These are just a couple examples and I am sure I could find examples of videos of both artists in which more full body shots are present but it still irks me. This heavy (no pun intended) reliance on face shots just makes me think of a phrase every fat girl gets sick of hearing, "You have such a pretty face" which always seemed to imply, to me, that the rest wasn't pretty. Just the face.

Not only is this insulting it's annoying as all hell. Us plus size women have so few fashion icons, that when you're video only focuses on the face, we don't get a chance to admire, critique and enjoy the fashion statements the performer might be making. In some videos, I don't even know if the artist is wearing pants or a skirt, because every shot of the lower body is either blurry or left behind on some cutting room floor.

So, how about you step back and give us the whole picture. I mean, honestly, it's not like you're somehow tricking us, the audience, into thinking these ladies are a more "marketable" size by only showing their faces.

Sincerely,

Shannon

P.S Just so I'm not a hypocrite here is a recent picture of me legs and all!

I'm the one on the left and, obviously, my twin on the right.