Charlotte Kuhrt and her mother can be seen together in the spring campaign of the online retailer Zalando

Source: Dan Beleiu / Hermann Bredehorst


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You can call them “fat”, says Charlotte Kuhrt.

For years she only knew the word as an insult.

As part of “fat pig”, for example, such things were always bad to hear, she says in a video interview.

But one day she decided to take a more neutral view of the word.

When Kuhrt describes herself as “fat” today, then she does it without judgment: “For me it is now a description, just as 'slim' describes slim bodies.

Nobody can offend me with 'fat'. "

Just as the meaning of “fat” changed over the years for Kuhrt, so did her self-image.

As a teenager she found it difficult to be fat - but today there is no longer any contradiction between being fat and beautiful.

Or fat and successful: Kuhrt is a popular plus-size model, and she can currently be seen with her mother in the Zalando spring campaign.

The online retailer also photographed other pairings, for example model and trans woman Elizabeth Williams and her mother.

The aim is to “celebrate communities and their values”, according to a press release.

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What community and values ​​does Kuhrt stand for?

Find out who takes a closer look at your Instagram channel.

There, at @charlottekuhrt, she regularly publishes photos and thoughts of herself.

Sometimes you can see her in a bathing suit at the lake, sometimes in fashionable outfits in her apartment, sometimes she shows her partner and often she advertises products.

The arc that spans all of this is their fatness - and the ambition to finally change something in the social perception of bodies that do not correspond to the ideal of beauty.

ICONIST:

How did you become a plus-size model?

Charlotte Kuhrt:

I've been working in the fashion industry for ten years, and was a make-up artist and art director.

Five or six years ago someone asked me if I wanted to model too.

At first it was unimaginable for me, I only knew thin models.

That's how I slipped into the job, but quickly switched my focus to Instagram.

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ICONIST:

On Instagram?

How come?

Kuhrt: Back then,

in the plus-size industry, there was still the ideal of “accepted fat”, as I jokingly call it.

You were not allowed to wear size 44 or 46, you had to have an hourglass figure, as little cellulite as possible, a flat stomach and a large chest.

But that doesn't apply to all fat bodies.

In the meantime, the image of plus-size models is changing, but at the time I asked myself: Why don't you see my body shape more often with sizes 48 to 50, for example?

There has to be a platform for that.

I then decided: I don't just want to be seen as a model on posters, I also want to have a message.

And you can do that on Instagram.

ICONIST: You

now have 180,000 fans there.

Is it a hobby or do you make money from it?

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Kuhrt:

In the meantime, the jobs that come up on Instagram make up a larger part of my income than modeling.

For example, I receive speaker inquiries or do product collaborations via the platform.

My podcast “Fat Thoughts” also came about through Instagram.

ICONIST:

On your profile you describe yourself as a "Body Acceptance Activist" - activist for body acceptance.

What do you stand for specifically?

Kuhrt:

All bodies are accepted as they are on all levels.

That broke down Body Acceptance.

I am working to ensure that all the stigmata associated with being fat disappear and that fat people are no longer structurally discriminated against, for example in their professional life.

I keep getting messages from people who have been turned down in the application process because they are fat.

Perhaps what I am not demanding is also important: that everyone thinks we fat people are beautiful.

But there has to be a basic acceptance in society.

ICONIST: Post

a few nice pictures on Instagram and change the world for fat people: Critics of “Instagram activism” find that naive.

Kuhrt:

It's all about visibility, about the fact that a broad mass is listening.

Instagram offers a large platform, through which the media draws attention to me, I can talk about my topics - whether on a promotional poster or in an interview like right now.

Sure I'm not a politician.

But I think the past year has shown what is possible when many people get together on Instagram, so that you can, for example, initiate petitions.

That's why I wouldn't make “Instagram activism” so small.

ICONIST:

But don't you primarily reach people via Instagram, for example, who are already convinced that body acceptance is important - and not those who have prejudices about fat people?

Kuhrt:

That's true to a certain extent.

I notice this when I step out of my Instagram bubble and, for example, give interviews.

When I see the reader's comments afterwards, I often think: Oh, crazy, I don't even have these people on my profile.

But you can just as easily see it this way: 180,000 people follow me and if I change something in their head, they might pass it on to those around them.

I also have a lot of slim fans who write to me: "Thanks to you, I understood a lot and noticed how fat-hostile I am."

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ICONIST:

Movements such as body acceptance or body positivity, which focus on imperfect bodies, will not be able to take body

pressure

off young people either, says the well-known psychoanalyst Susie Orbach.

Because compared to the “rest of the flood of images on the Internet”, these movements are simply too small, she told “Zeit Magazin”.

Kuhrt:

I understand Susie Orbach's thoughts.

Body positivity in particular is watering down more and more, in the past it was a movement of black, fat women.

And today, under the motto, slim women curl up for photos so that you can see their rolls.

But I still believe that even small movements can change something.

The topic is becoming more and more important, a kind of snowball effect develops: a few small voices become many loud voices.

You may just have to give these movements some time.

I also know firsthand the importance of properly educating young people.

Before Corona, I gave lectures at schools and noticed from the questions asked by the schoolgirls that they were thinking exactly about what I was talking about.

Quite apart from the fact that it was probably the first time that you saw a fat person in a positive context, someone who is fat and totally successful.

Because fat is the worst thing a teenager can become.

ICONIST:

You were photographed with your mother for the Zalando advertising campaign.

She puts her hand on their shoulders to encourage them in the photo.

Was your character a family issue when you were a kid or a teenager?

Kuhrt:

I'm the only daughter, my two brothers were always athletic, my mother was slim for a long time.

And I was the fat kid.

It was very difficult to get along with it in the family.

When I was 14 or 15 I wanted to go on a diet and my mother encouraged me to do it.

Today I know that she did it out of love, but also that it was basically wrong.

At such a young age, parents shouldn't support dieting attempts.

By now my mother has understood what went wrong when I was young.

When we took the photo, we both had tears in our eyes because we had the feeling: Today we are standing here together for the same topic.

ICONIST:

The advertising campaign runs under the motto “Here to stay” - here to stay.

Do you have the feeling that the fashion industry also implements this and that fat people really think along with them, apart from the marketing department?

Kuhrt:

I'm definitely noticing a change there.

It's just beginning to really go beyond a mere trend.

You can tell that the fashion industry can no longer look the other way.

She can no longer fob fat people with a "For you there are the oversize boutiques!"

For example, I was approached by a number of designers, including Germans, who are finally offering more sizes and want my advice on this.

What surprised me, by the way, with the Zalando campaign itself: In addition to the photos, there is also a film in which bodies much larger than mine can be seen.

They are shown very freely, almost in underwear.

The typical hourglass plus-size model was not used again, but people really thought about it: How can we put a really fat body in the limelight?

For me, this is a signal that this is not just about superficial diversity

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A shot from the Zalando fashion film.

In the middle: Yoliswa Mqoco, who, like Kuhrt, campaigns for the acceptance of fat people on Instagram

Source: Terence Neale, Emilie Badenhorst

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ICONIST: Finally, do

you have any advice for parents who are like your mother?

Who only want the best, but have no idea what they are doing wrong?

Kuhrt:

There are now so many fat people who talk and tell about their stories, as in some cases for 15 years they have heard that they are too fat and that they would not fit in.

Parents should listen to them and then ask themselves: Do I want to do this to my child?

Is that how I want to put it under pressure?

Or would you rather talk to him, listen to him?

I think that the subject of the body should not be the main topic in the relationship with the child, like a threat that hovers over everything: “You are fat!

That will stop you! ”For example, I would have liked my mother to encourage less my attempts at dieting and more my creative streak.

So that I can develop self-confidence from something that I'm good at.

Because we are much more than our bodies.

Everyone has to learn that, not just parents.