It all started with the term “fat-shaming” a few years ago. Since then, we’ve made great strides as a society to change the image of women portrayed in media. But may we have taken it a little too far? It seems as though we’ve done a whole reversal and now we have “skinny-shaming.”
I’ve always grown up with a high metabolism. I’ve been blessed with the ability to eat almost whatever I want, and really never gain much weight from it. It’s a blessing and a curse now. Right here recently is when I’ve began to notice small changes in society’s view of “skinny women”. In department stores I find it harder to find the small sizes than the larger sizes. In the clothing store I work in currently, we tend to get a few more large sizes than small sizes. It’s become popular now to be “larger.” The average American woman’s size in 2016 is size 16-18. I’m currently sitting at a size 1-2.
I’m seeing it effect my friendships. Girls make comments such as “I need to work out more! I need someone to go to the gym with.” and if I make the same comment, I get told things such as “You can’t say stuff like that because you’re already skinny. You don’t need to go to a gym.” Which now is portrayed as an insult, not a compliment. I’m not going to the gym to lose weight. I want to go to the gym to build endurance, muscle, and tone up my body. Why should I be shamed for wanting to go to the gym for these reasons?
Another common “skinny shaming” is the posts going around Facebook about how “real women have curves” or “men only want a girl with curves”. I’m sorry, but I didn’t realize my body type depicted the kind of woman I am or whether men would want me or not? Just because I may not have curves, does not make me any different than anyone else.
I understand wanting to continue to boosts girl’s self-esteem and show them that you don’t have to be skinny to be beautiful, but we cannot continue to put down those that are skinny to accomplish that. Every girl is beautiful no matter her size. Instead of going from one end of the spectrum to the other, we need to stop looking at being larger as a negative thing or being skinny as a negative thing. God made us all different, as long as we do our part to take care of our bodies, then there is no reason for one body type to ever be better than another. There should be no such thing as “fat-shaming”, and likewise, no such thing as “skinny-shaming”.
Rant over.
