'Ewww, you're so fat. Perhaps try eating less, fatty.'
'Eugh, you're far too skinny. Do you even eat? Go and get a McDonalds.'
Woah, this is the 500th blog post I've published, and rather than doing a little round up post of my blogging experiences or a cake recipe, I thought I'd address something that's been on my mind recently. (Typical upbeat, chatty, posts will resume in the next couple of days - but for now I'd like to address something a little more serious.)
Skinny-shaming. Reverse body shaming. Anti-feminism. Call it what you want, but whatever it is seems to be becoming more and more apparent in today's society.
If you're still unsure as to what I mean, I'm sure this will help you out; 'only real women have curves, nobody wants a bag of bones.' I thought we'd finally cracked this whole body image issue, and decided that accepting people (whatever their size) for who they are was the most important thing. Well clearly not. Turn on the radio and what are you bound to hear; Anaconda and 'that' Meghan Trainor song, which both feature the fabulous lyric; 'skinny bitches.'
What happened to 'everyone is beautiful.' It seems to be more like 'everyone is beautiful*' (*unless you're skinny, because then everyone will constantly mention it and hate you for it.)
Recently I've seen a lot of posts on Facebook comparing VS Angels to 'real women.' Firstly, are the former not 'real women'? I appreciate that society is trying to promote all body sizes as beautiful - but shaming slim people doesn't seem the best way to go about it?
Also, being skinny doesn't always correlate with fitness. I hate the stigma around skinny girls going to the gym. Why can't somebody thin, go and workout? Just because someone is skinny it doesn't mean that they can run cross country or swim 100 lengths of a pool. So why should it be so bad for somebody thin to want to improve their general fitness?
There's a very big difference between someone who is healthy and skinny, and somebody who is unhealthy and skinny, and I think more people need to think about this before they add their two cents.
Personally, I'm 5'8" and I eat like a horse. Yet, not a week goes by where somebody hasn't told me I'm too skinny and I need to eat more. Yes, I know I'm slim, I don't particularly like my body, but telling me to 'watch out, as my twig ankles might snap' isn't exactly empathetic is it? Yet, if it was aimed at somebody plus size, it would be considered absolutely outrageous...
Skinny-shaming. Reverse body shaming. Anti-feminism. Call it what you want, but whatever it is seems to be becoming more and more apparent in today's society.
If you're still unsure as to what I mean, I'm sure this will help you out; 'only real women have curves, nobody wants a bag of bones.' I thought we'd finally cracked this whole body image issue, and decided that accepting people (whatever their size) for who they are was the most important thing. Well clearly not. Turn on the radio and what are you bound to hear; Anaconda and 'that' Meghan Trainor song, which both feature the fabulous lyric; 'skinny bitches.'
What happened to 'everyone is beautiful.' It seems to be more like 'everyone is beautiful*' (*unless you're skinny, because then everyone will constantly mention it and hate you for it.)
Recently I've seen a lot of posts on Facebook comparing VS Angels to 'real women.' Firstly, are the former not 'real women'? I appreciate that society is trying to promote all body sizes as beautiful - but shaming slim people doesn't seem the best way to go about it?
Also, being skinny doesn't always correlate with fitness. I hate the stigma around skinny girls going to the gym. Why can't somebody thin, go and workout? Just because someone is skinny it doesn't mean that they can run cross country or swim 100 lengths of a pool. So why should it be so bad for somebody thin to want to improve their general fitness?
There's a very big difference between someone who is healthy and skinny, and somebody who is unhealthy and skinny, and I think more people need to think about this before they add their two cents.
Personally, I'm 5'8" and I eat like a horse. Yet, not a week goes by where somebody hasn't told me I'm too skinny and I need to eat more. Yes, I know I'm slim, I don't particularly like my body, but telling me to 'watch out, as my twig ankles might snap' isn't exactly empathetic is it? Yet, if it was aimed at somebody plus size, it would be considered absolutely outrageous...
This is the stigma we need to change.
I'd love to hear your opinion on this, what seems to be infinite, battle of body image.
