I was at the gym shop the other day, buying new gym clothes. As you do. While rifling through the racks I noticed clothing marked Size 0.

WHAT DOES THAT ACTUALLY SAY ABOUT A WOMAN?

If she is a size zero does she actually exist? Given that we live in a society where smaller is so often deemed better – being smaller is associated with being smarter, prettier, more desirable and successful – what does it mean when your dress size is a zero?

I will never know for sure because let me just categorically state right here and now that I was shopping at the other end of the rack. Where there are practically no clothes because everyone is trying to get smaller and shop down a size – to the point the clothing label might actually state they don’t actually exist. There is great shame perpetuated in wearing larger dress sizes. The clothes are hidden away in the back corner of shops and frequently not stocked.

A lot of men’s clothing uses measurements – a 32-inch waist or a 40-inch chest. Don’t get me started on why we’re still measuring things in imperial measurements, but at least there is logic in that system. And it can be consistent. If you wear size 36 pants in one brand there’s a good chance you’ll be 36 in the next brand.

NUMBERS AREN’T SUPPOSED TO LIE

Sometimes clothing comes in small, medium, large etc. While those labels do have a judgmental tone they are often at least consistent. A woman living in a smaller body will probably wear a dress with a small tag on it. Small is a much nicer statement than zero.

When I asked my son what size zero means to him he said, “It means it doesn’t exist. Something that is size zero can’t exist in three dimensions.” He had no idea such a thing was for real in women’s retail.

I have had clothes hanging in my wardrobe that are three or four different sizes on the label but all fit me exactly the same. And psychologically I can’t get past the idea that clothing with a smaller number is better. Even though the number of centimetres across the hip (see? centimetres make more sense) is exactly the same.

WOMEN’S CLOTHING HAS NO CONSISTENCY

I will never be a size 0. My skeleton is bigger than that and as much as I’d love to shave a few edges off some of my bones, I don’t think that’s going to happen. So I’ll have to settle for more average numbers.

This may all seem like pie in the sky complaining about nothing but I believe it’s an important conversation to have. It’s 2022 and women are still judged and categorised by their size – and bigger is never better.

Health and fitness comes in every size – from 0-100 (or whatever number labels stop at). So does physical and psychological illness. A woman can be any size and healthy. A woman can be any size and unhealthy. A dress tag does not determine wellness. A clothing size label should be a standard measurement that makes it easier for any one of us to grab an item off a rack and know that it is in the right ballpark. In a society where women consistently try to starve themselves into invisibility, labelling clothes “zero” makes them seem appealing – for no apparent reason.

AND WHAT ABOUT “ONE SIZE FITS ALL”

Does this concept even exist for men? I have friends who are tiny little things. They’re fit and healthy and strong and intelligent and funny and kind and all sorts of important things. But they’re not the same size as me. The laughable concept that a woman 20 centimetres shorter than me and 40 kilos lighter is going to be wearing the same size clothing is quite frankly abhorrent.

Clothing labelled one size fits all is nearly always a mid-range, average kind of size. There’s nothing wrong with that, but someone much smaller or larger won’t fit in it. Couldn’t we just call them “medium fit”? And when you can’t wear an item of clothing that claims to fit everybody, what does it say about you? How do you fit in when you don’t belong to “all”? I have been in tears with that exact scenario.

Let me just reassure you right now that “one size fits all” clothing is highly unlikely to fit nicely on a size 0 woman. Apparently, nothing fits her.

I have been many sizes (zero is not one of them) and choosing clothing to try on has always been problematic. I often don’t know what size I am and when the clothes that actually fit me are numbered somewhere between 8-18 it is just a minefield trying stuff on. Sometimes I wear things called small (I’m not small, so what are the small people wearing?) Sometimes I wear things called extra large (there are bigger people me, so what does their label say and how do they feel about it?)

CLOTHING LABELS FOR WOMEN HAVE INHERENT JUDGMENT

It is bad enough that women are categorised and condemned for how their body looks. It is just sincerely unfair that navigating the horror of dress labels reinforces the condemnation. Clothes should be made to fit bodies. Bodies don’t need to be made to fit clothes.

The message we hear loud and clear is that women need to get smaller and smaller. And if they finally reach a tiny size (at any psychological and physical cost), their clothing label declares they don’t exist.