“Bones are for dogs. Men want real meat.” “Real women have curves.” “0 is not a size.”
In the past decade, it’s without a doubt that the body positivity movement has taken the spotlight. Whether it’s social media or pop culture, these platforms are increasingly echoing messages about the importance of accepting one’s body. When looked at more closely, however, these themes appear rather one-sided. That is, they are aimed toward ending fat-shaming by asking curvy individuals to ditch the image of the ideal skinny body. But isn’t it rather ironic that in the process of ending fat-shaming, our society ends up skinny shaming? On the surface, we’re trying to encourage curvy bodies, but beneath there’s a much more offensive undertone with massive pop music icons throwing out lines like,“f*ck you if you skinny b*tches,” or “now she just skin and bones.” So then, if we really are trying to encourage body positivity, why is it okay to call someone “skinny,” but offensive to call someone “fat”?
Most of what it comes down to seems to be society’s ideals of what is and isn’t an “ideal” body. The beauty standards of Hollywood and other large industries have made it so that being skinny almost makes you seem privileged in society. You’re “supposed” to be skinny, so you should take it as a compliment if you’re called skinny, but you “shouldn’t be fat” so it’s insulting to call someone fat. However, what we need to realize is that everyone has different ideas of the ideal body, and every individual has insecurities. So often have I heard someone say, “stop complaining, you’re so skinny,” but being skinny doesn’t mean you don’t have the right to complain. In fact, as the media continues to perpetuate the image that only curvy women are “real” women whom men find desirable, it only makes thinner individuals far more insecure. In an attempt to be more accepting of curvier women, we have now flipped the scale and made the idea of a skinny body seem undesirable.
Of course, the amount of fat-shaming that takes place in our society is far more than the amount of thin-shaming that happens. However, that doesn’t make one any less hurtful or offensive to individuals – both forms must stop. At the end of the day, it’s important to realize that all bodies are beautiful ones, and neither side of this socially-constructed binary defines how much of a woman you are. Thus, tearing down one body type in an attempt to make another seem more ideal is counterproductive in the process of encouraging body positivity in today’s society as a whole. So let’s stop using clothing sizes to define one another, because no body shaming is acceptable shaming.
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