I've shopped for years with great satisfaction at my favorite stores. It's not uncommon for me to grab a pair of pants in my size from the shelf, the same size I've been wearing for five years. I don't need to try it on because I know it will fit. A size 10 is a size 10. But for some reason, when I try them on at home, they don't fit; they're too small.

That can't be right. I check the tag again — it says size 10. I compare my older pair of pants to the new ones; the material doesn't stretch, so the only difference should be the color. But there is a distinct difference; the new pants look, in comparison, about a size 8 - but they say 10. It must be mislabeled, but why would they label a size 8 a size 10?

The Gap, Esprit, Bootlegger, Jacob and Le Chateau: North American pop-culture clothing stores have trends that go beyond color and cut. The real trend, the one that is most offensive — far more than super-low jeans and barely-there tank tops—is the downsizing of clothing.

"Clothing stores cater toward teens, for the super thin and NOT the average woman. They don't allow for people with thighs..." says Erin, a third year nursing student at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia.

When I asked a staff member at Esprit to explain the tiny shirt and pant sizes she simply said, "These are Hong Kong sizes." She would not elaborate on why the store would choose to use Hong Kong sizing in Canada. While I acknowledge the large population of Asian women, the fact remains the majority of North American women are hard-pressed to fit into Hong Kong sizes.

The Gap, while not admitting to a Hong Kong sizing scheme, has downsized tremendously. "Size 8 at the Gap is smaller than it was five years ago," says Stephanie, an aspiring film producer. "This sort of thing makes me furious, angry. I don't want to spend my money in the store because nothing will look good on me."

So where did size discrimination begin?

Erin blames the media: "If you didn't see it on TV, you wouldn't walk around comparing people to these crazy unattainable ideals." Women have a natural inclination to worry about body weight and how they look, but it has become a dangerous cultural obsession. Some supermodels and superstars starve themselves to reach an ideal size and shape.

"The media inspires this hideous ideal. Skin-and-bones women can't be healthy," says Stephanie. Many overweight people in Canada and the United States, however, feel that "this urge to lose weight should be about health, not to look better...sometimes women look worse, in fact." Yes, worse in fact. Sunken cheeks and protruding collarbones, ribs and hipbones are not attractive to most, and yet they are made out as beautiful features.

So what now? Where do we go from here? How do we make a change? Both Erin and Stephanie admit to having learned what was attractive for a woman, with regard to body size and shape, from the media.

"The Gap, Banana Republic and teen stores all have clothes for a very specific body type and everybody on TV wears those kinds of clothes. There has to be a concerted effort to change the mind-set," suggests Stephanie.

In a 1997 song from Hollywood film director Baz Luhrmann, we were advised to, "not read beauty magazines [because] they will only make you feel ugly." His words are wise, yet somewhat unrealistic. The fact is that faces and sexy, thin bodies sell magazines. When a star is on the cover of a magazine that magazine is likely to thousands more copies than if the cover is of someone unknown, even if she is beautiful. The magazine, fashion, television, and motion picture industries are entangled in a marketing scheme targeted for one unifying purpose: to sell.

While not all motion pictures are made solely for the purpose of market value, every Hollywood film plays a role in advertising a product, a style, a look, and a message. Unfortunately a pretty face far too often downplays the good messages. The movie, Coyote Ugly, for example, has a strong message: Shoot for your dreams. Don't let anyone stand in your way. You are special and unique. The problem is that most people who saw that film saw little more than beautiful women dancing scantily clad on a bar.

"...Talking at all is not encouraged in this business [Fashion]. Anything you have to say you say through the product...the image," said model agency executive of the 80s, Wilhelmina Cooper, (in the film Gia). Images often speak louder than words. The images and the products they speak through are destroying us, as the models continue to exist as simple puppets designed to entice. Perhaps it's time we let the models speak.

I long to walk into a store and know that I can buy what I like without leaving for lack of a size larger than 4. I know one, maybe two people who could fit that size, and at least thirty who don't. From the runway, to magazines, television and the movies, to the mall, trends are dangerous fiends. Both of my sisters have dealt with eating disorders. Had they been born a decade or two earlier, they might not have. Marilyn Monroe was a size 14 (or 16 in today's sizing scheme); Kate Moss is a size 1.

Women are all searching for, or to become, the ideal woman. But there is no such thing. She doesn't exist, only the myth propagated by the fashion industry through the media and by ourselves as we buy into the message and the product.

Will addressing the size issue change anything? Will things change when people continue to starve themselves to fit that size 2, 4, even 8? Change can only come from the source, from the fashion industry. Perhaps change will come only when models refuse to be hired based on their measurements, or when Hollywood promotes skill over a pretty face. This is not a perfect world, but the least we can do is try.

Copyright © 2002 Kimberley Maurice. All Rights Reserved.

Kimberley Maurice is from British Columbia, Canada and is working toward a B.A. in Communications at Trinity Western University. Aside from writing articles, Kim is currently creating the master script for "A Maze of Grace" 2002, with ATP Productions. After graduation she will begin her application into the Director's Guild of Canada.