"Q: Can I wear a crop top?" a reader asked.
"If (and only if!) you have a flat stomach, feel free to try one," reads the reply.
Plus-size fashion blogger Sarah Conley, alerted to the line by a friend, decided to fight back by using the hashtag #rockthecrop on Twitter and invited other ladies to join in by posting proud, crop-rocking selfies.
Conley tweeted her own pics directly to O magazine creative director Adam Glassman.
On Twitter and Instagram, plus-size fashionistas quickly flooded the feeds with selfies of them wearing shirts that hovered above their waistlines.One Instagram user, Leigh Rich, also posted these selfies but tagged her photos with #SlutsWithGuts."I started using #slutswithguts because I love a sweet rhyme, and also because I am a slut with a gut," Rich plainly told the Daily Dot in a Facebook chat on Thursday. "It's also because clothes that aren't viewed as slutty on a thin person, like a bikini, are met with a lot of really sexual comments from my followers and friends on social media."
Rich also tags her selfies with #HorribleInternetFatGirls, which she said is a joke between her and a friend but also a criticism of the "fatshion"—fat fashion—movement."It's overwhelmingly white girls around my size who get credit for making fat fashion a thing," said Rich, "When the reality is we've been riding the coattails of women of color for years."
Regardless of the movement's origins, women of all sizes, races, and styles took to Instagram to show that exposed midriffs are for everyone.
"Most women don't have flat stomachs," Rich said, "Why shouldn't we get to wear something that makes us feel sexy or comfortable or trendy?"Photo via leighgion_of_doom/Instagram | Remix by Jason Reed
