would give anything not to be included in this group.

"I accept myself the way I am. Unfortunately, the pressures of society don't allow us
to have that
comfort," she said. "All I desperately want is to have that pressure off."

men, who tend to

see weight gain as more of a health issue than a self-esteem issue. Women,
however, often feel
they are judged by society based on their appearance, and therefore they view
buying large-size
clothes as a sign of failure.

"When you're larger than you're used to being, you don't want to buy clothes,"

there's been attached to weight a tremendous amount of shame

whether we were in the fashion business or not ; Lane Bryant was losing market
share in a growing business

amount of positive-image marketing can overcome the

powerful feelings of inadequacy afflicting many obese people

though there's the fat-acceptance movement,

patients don't ever want to admit that they have given up

some companies capitalize on the suspicion, resentment

and anger about society's attitudes toward them.

In a campaign that clearly attempts to turn an overweight woman's anger about

societal attitudes
into a cause, buying the product becomes a protest.

If people are unhappy about their size, their weight, obviously we can't deal with that

we do try to do is create a shopping environment and products that can make them
want to shop or cause them to be less reluctant to shop

more willing to pay full price, spends more per shopping trip and is more
loyal

women don't want to admit that they're

fat,

marketing aimed at plus-size women frequently seems targeted at customers at

the lowest end of the obesity scale, which infuriates -- and alienates -- the larger
plus-size
population.

There's kind of this weird message that it's okay to be fat, as long as you're not
really fat.