From a very young age, girls are taught to hate their bodies. We see models in the magazines on the shelfs at Walmart, tabloids that read "How to Loose Weight in 10 Days!" and because our mothers were taught to hate THEIR bodies and their mothers were taught to hate THEIR bodies, it's like this never ending chain of women teaching women that they should be ashamed of the home they are going to live in for the rest of their lives.
I've never been skinny. Okay, maybe when I was like five I was skinny and had that notorious 'thigh gap', but as soon as I hit puberty, due to steroid use as a small child because of breathing difficulties and an unhealthy diet, I ballooned. I was huge.
SO, no, I've never been through "skinny shaming". However, I have gone through the countless days in elementary and middle school being bullying and teasing due to my over-weightness by skinnier girls, so I reckon it's the same thing, just with the roles reversed.
At first, when I heard the term "skinny shaming", I saw red. I was LIVID that these girls were complaining about how everyone thought they were 'too skinny', when their bodies were the ONLY thing I ever wanted as kid. I would have done ANYTHING to have a thigh gap and to fit in with the "cool" kids, who were all skinny. I would have gladly traded my "plus size" body for any of those smaller ones.
Honestly I still kind of get irked when people complain about "no one likes skinny girls either". Being a bitter, bigger young woman, that's going to be my first reaction. In my world, EVERYONE love skinny girls. Quite frankly, I thought I'd never have a boyfriend, because I wasn't skinny enough and I felt like all guys LOVED smaller girls.
However, the more I thought about it...the more ridiculous me getting angry seemed to me. These girls who are of small stature have felt / still feel the same way I did / do. I don't know how many times I have heard "Man, I wish I had your butt" or "Can you share some of your boobs with me?" and each time I'm like...."Wahhhhh?! Only if you give me your small thighs and stomach!".
And then I realized that it doesn't matter what size you are, we all feel the same. NO ONE looks like the women in the magazines. Not even the models look like how they do on the magazine in real life. We're all either too short, too tall, too big, too skinny, don't have the right color eyes, don't have the right cheek structure, don't have the right skin tone, ect. And even though their reality looks so much different than mine, it's really not. After having many 'skinner' friends, I have come to realize that many of them are still just as self conscious as many 'curvier' women.
Then I start getting mad that women are attacking each other.
When I was little, I was on an all boys basketball team. I quickly learned to be aggressive. One time I wrestled this boy to the ground, trying to get the ball away from him...just to realize that he was in fact on my team.You can only imagine how embarrassed I got. Honestly it kinda makes me giggle writing about it, because it was SO embarrassing.
When women shame other women on their bodies, it is exactly like that one time I wrestled my teammate to the ground and tried to get the ball away from him. Why on earth would you beat down someone who is going through the same game that you're going through? Teammates are supposed to HELP each other.
Your body is your body. It's what you were given and it's the only body you're ever going to have. The world we live in will try to tell you that your body is not good enough and that you need to change it through plastic surgery, dieting, not eating, or even eating MORE so maybe you could gain weight and someone will like you cause you're curvy.
That's why there should be no "Skinny vs. Curvy". If anything it should be "Skinny AND Curvy; Women United" (corny, yes, but you get my point). When women stop hating other women on their bodies because we get enough of that from social media. Once everyone loves themselves for who they are, love handles, flat chest and all, the media will not know what to do and we might FINALLY get models who look like everyday women.
Love your body, Love yourself. <3
