WORLD STOP….  Beyonce Knowles- Carter has just dropped her new line of active wear! Highly anticipated and guaranteed to do numbers. It’s been awhile since we got any new material from Mrs. Carter but when she comes back, it’s like she never left. Following her release of Formation, also known as  “the Black Lives Matter anthem”, accompanied by an epic super bowl performance, BEY reiterates why she is QUEEN.

It doesn’t  stop there though, no. Formation world tours and now an active line that’s going to motivate you to break a sweat. When she dropped the commercial for IVY Park it was everything the beyhive could ask for. The video features a sultry Bey with just as much grace  presenting her new product saying “The park became a state of mind. The park became my strength. The park is what made me who I am. ” It’s about two minutes long and we get her rollerblading, dipping into a local pool and hiking up stairs and even a peak at beautiful Blue Ivy.

How did we not see this coming? Well I didn’t, but it makes sense. If there’s someone who works hard, it’s Beyonce, that’s a fact. If it’s anyone who is body goals and can make us all run to the nearest gym and push back every fudge brownie, it’s Beyonce!  We get it and that makes sense but what doesn’t is the size chart and one thing you won’t be getting is in formation with this active wear if you’re bigger than a size 14.

When it was revealed where Ivy Park would be available it became more clear the image she was going for, and that full figure women would get the short end of the stick. Topshop and Nordstrom aren’t exactly plus size friendly, but fans nationwide remained hopeful.

The day it was released for public consumption was when optimism fell short.

A few fans expressed their disappointment via Twitter and Tumblr sarcastically stating things like “thanks for embracing your plus size audience”  and “how can you stand for every women while you overlook a large population of us? “ While others seems more accepting to the lack of representation and open discrimination responding with “she never has plus size women present in her videos either so what do you actually expect?” Some even went on to say more hurtful comments such as “seriously? It’s workout clothes, clearly y’all don’t workout.”

Beyonce has yet to speak out about whether there’s more sizes to come or if she’s even considering the broken hearts of her fans.

But to be fair Beyonce isn’t the first person to be openly exclusive with their brand.This has been a prevalent trend store to store nationwide. Which raises the question why ignore the plus size market? And is this a case of oversight or insult?

Well,  according to Dodai Stewart, fashion journalist, women who wear plus sizes know if you want something to wear, you’ve got to shop online. “The Huffington post reports that online retailer ModCloth conducted a survey — polling over 5,000 women — and found that there were more “wearing a size 16 dress than those who wear a size 2 and size combined.” And yet! Some of the most popular stores in the country — Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, H&M, J.Crew, American Apparel, Abercrombie & Fitch — do not carry sizes above 12 or 14 in stores., even though some retailers make sizes above 12 or 16, they don’t stock them in stores; shoppers have to order them online.”

The fact that the average size women, in America at least, is a 12-16, would make you think offering a range of sizes is also the profitable thing to do. Right? Maybe not, because marketing reports show that if something is accessible to all the value decreases. Arguing that they aren’t selling to people but instead an image.

Now this is in no way saying Beyonce’s intentionally excluding plus size women or using this exclusion as a marketing ploy.  But one thing for sure, we do have to raise a brow to situations that ostracizes and sends a message of insignificance to women based on something as physical and vain as a clothing size.

Carry on…