An insensitive response?
Earlier this week, Kacey Musgraves launched her latest fashion collection, a collaboration with the brand Lee for an apparel line featuring men’s and women’s denim bottoms and tops, sleepwear, swimwear, accessories, and even items for your pet.
The “Kacey Lee” line is available only at Walmart through an exclusive partnership – but some fans aren’t happy that they won’t be able to get anything for themselves.
Earlier this week, a woman named Megan Ixim, who calls herself a “fat activist” and goes by @msgigggles on Instagram, posted a video sharing her disappointment at the lack of plus-size options available in Walmart for Kacey’s new collection:
“Guess who’s been excluded again? That’s right, fat people. But don’t worry, they are selling extended sizes. But online. But from further review, very, very limited options, not the entire line. And it seems like the only true extended sizes are the swimwear instead of all of the other merch.”
The influencer says this has happened before with Kacey’s previous collection, and points out that Walmart seems like a natural place to sell larger sizes:
“I personally find this really upsetting because plus sizes and not selling them at Walmart seems really silly to me. I feel like that’s somewhere historically we’ve always found plus sizes. And also, Kasey did this before with her Reformation collab where there was extended sizes but with three designs instead of the entire line. So I think we’re upset. I’m disappointed.”
Well apparently her post caught Kacey’s eye, because the Grammy winner hopped into her comments and addressed Ixim’s claims:
“Hiii not in my control at all. Sorry you’re disappointed. Hope this helps!”
Well the response didn’t sit well with Ixim, who made a follow-up video to express her disappointment with the singer she at least used to consider herself a fan of.
“I’m the woman Kacey Musgraves basically told this week to go f–k herself … Initially, pretty cool to get a response until I realized how absolutely condescending this response was to me, our plus size community, and her fans.”
And she blamed Kacey’s response on fatphobia, pointing out that the response would have been different if it had been another group calling out her lack of inclusivity:
“Was I absolutely surprised to have this response from a media trained pop star who should know better? Yeah, honestly, that shocked me a little bit. I’m not going to lie. And for me, really cemented the fact that fatphobia is a hell of a drug.
You know, I think if it was any other marginalized group calling out a lack of inclusivity, we would have never received this response. But because it’s me, a small fat creator calling out a lack of inclusivity, I mean, this is par for the course.”
Ixim says she hasn’t received an apology or any further communication from Kacey, and doesn’t expect that she will, but says that she expected better from a line that was promoted as “inclusive.”
So far Kacey hasn’t responded to her latest video, but if she does we’ll make sure to keep you updated.
