"I think men want to see a normal-looking guy modeling their clothes," he told The Guardian after being signed. He is a normal guy; tall with a 42-inch waist, Miko probably wouldn't get a second look in most parts of America.
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Well, I take that back — he's got that whole Brawny man thing going on, so of course he'd get noticed. But other than that he's not outside the realm of normal, unless that normal is the fashion world.
By all accounts, he's lovely and charming in interviews. It also seems like he understands his privilege in the modeling world. His recent Target campaign went largely unnoticed until his signing with IMG.
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"I think it made a splash because Target is a big retailer. But they just put me in the shoot with classically sized male models, so all the fashion blogs were like: did Target sneak a plus size guy into their site?" he told The Guardian, adding that it probably would've been a lot more noticeable if it was a plus-sized woman.
He'd probably get a whole lot more crap if he were a woman, too. Models like Tess Holliday and Ashley Graham are constantly on the receiving end of horrific comments and concern trolling via their social media accounts. The pregnant Holliday even had to post a response to comments about her weight and how she's putting her unborn child in danger, just by living.
Tess Holliday 1
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Honestly, take a look at any of their recent posts and you're likely to see some pretty gross comments.
Contrast that with Miko's comments and you'll see something quite different. His comments have zero to do with his size, and everything to do with his sex appeal.
"You are so sexy!" "He's literally perfect." "He's mine." And so on… and so on.
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Don't get me wrong: He's gorgeous, but the fact that he's allowed to exist without constant comments about his health — no one is asking if he's going to lose weight — is a slap in the face to not only fellow plus models, but women in general.
Is it his fault? Nope… it's ours. We, as a whole, continue to allow women to be considered as "less than" because of body size, of looks, of physical attributes that we don't necessarily have control over.
Can we ever get to the point where everyone is accepted for who they are? I'd love that, but I also live in the real world where people will always have something to say. What I hope is that we get to the point where it's not about labels, but about the person.
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