It's fair to say that it is becoming en vogue to have curves, but what exactly defines a "curvy" woman?

Apparently every woman has curves, according to an article in New York Magazine. Writer Lauren Bans flipped through some magazines and discovered that everyone from Taylor Swift, size 2, to Melissa McCarthy, size 16+, has been described as "curvy." Curves are definitely "in" this season, regardless of whether you actually have them.

This creates an interesting, if not confusing, dynamic. On the one hand, there's been a lot of chagrin regarding the use of overly skinny models in advertisements, leading to a distorted perception of what the "ideal" or even "normal" woman looks like. On the other hand, are we really accepting a thicker woman as the status quo if we're talking about Taylor Swift's so-called "curves" (good luck finding them, by the way)?

It's been an odd year for women's bodies in media. Plus-sized clothing saw a Renaissance in that new, trendy and atypical-to-the-designation styles began permeating into the genre (Hurray!), but it was plastered with the moniker "Fatshion" (Boo!). Also, a study was published suggesting that if marketers used normal-sized women in advertisements, we might be able to shift the paradigm of what "normal" constitutes.

Maybe referring to all women as "curvy" is just a part of the transition of society accepting a plumper woman as ideal, and a size 2 woman being described with the same adjective as a size 16 woman is part of that transition. Is this a marketing to women strategy or just a buzzword being thrown around willy-nilly? We'll hope this is a sign of progress and not just an exercise in ridiculousness.

FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN with staff in Nashville & Los Angeles, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.