Donald Trump says a lot of things about women, many of which regard body image and weight. But, Trump isn’t the only perpetrator of body-shaming. There are several areas in our society that continue to encourage this negative attitude towards weight.
Clothing
The woman in this image doesn’t look horrible in this dress, though it is definitely revealing. Of the ways she may be perceived, there is a chance she would possibly be seen as slutty, easy, or sexy. If an average or larger woman were to wear this same dress she would be even more likely to be torn apart for it. People should be able to display their bodies how they feel comfortable doing so, without fearing harash comments despite their weight or the way they dress.
If you’re a woman who feels good in this kind of outfit, then by all means, wear it. Personally I would be self-conscious, but it’s still our personal choice to wear it or not. What we should question is why this style is highly popularized by society when a large majority of women would be uncomfortable wearing this or face criticism for doing so.
Shame from Other Women
I will be talking about what’s going from :30 to 1:16
There are a lot of things wrong with what’s going on in this video. The camera zooms in on her “large” stomach, the anchor person talks about how Miss Universe wasn’t the size of the universe when she won (implying that she is when this was taped 9 months later). What surprised me is that at the time Trump made these comments about Miss Universe, the general reaction was almost nonexistent. People weren’t fazed; they hardly blinked. The female reporters commenting on this were either condoning and agreeing with the fat-shaming of Miss Universe or were bystanders. As many of us have heard with bullying, the act of being a bystander is just as bad as if you were the bully. The newscasts compiled in this brief video included the following statements and more:
- “As her universe expanded, so did she.”
- “Well, the number keeps growing.”
- “This must be the most highly publicized 15 pounds in history.”
Depiction of Models
The idea of a perfect model being thin and white is being strayed from a bit, though it has been a slow process. These pictures tell most of the story.
Celebrity Depiction
Lea Michele, a celebrity who appears to be an “average” physical size was recently ridiculed for gaining 10 pounds. Her response to the criticism was perfect, but the fact that she had to respond to something like this in the first place is not okay. Watch the short video here. We shouldn’t be okay that we live in a world where Jennifer Lawrence is “chunky” and Amy Schumer is “obese”.
Eventually, We Fat-Shame Ourselves
As Tina Fey puts it in Mean Girls, if we call each other and ourselves bad names, it makes it okay for males to do the same. It’s hard to love yourself sometimes, especially in a culture that promotes the images of fat-shaming seen in this article (which definitely doesn’t cover them all).
I know this isn’t something that will change quickly, but I do think we can each do our part to show self-love for our bodies to our friends, and children if we have them. Change can never be immediate, but it can progress at a much faster rate when we begin to talk about it.