New words and concepts are being coined all the time.
Last year was the year of the “selfie,” and I can barely remember a time before “Google” was a verb. Well some such coinages that have entered our linguistic imagination in recent years are “fat shaming” and “thin shaming” and, subsequently, “thin privilege” (I haven’t really heard “fat privilege,” but logically this term could exist).
I’ve read great articles and blogs about fat shaming, and consequently taking on the problem of thin shaming, as two sides of the same coin. The problem here is body shaming, of any sort, and the fact that every body carries some kind of privilege.
I’ve read about “larger” or “heavier” women owning their social status as such and celebrating their bodies, and I’ve read about “naturally” slim (or effort-fully slim) women proposing their validity as equally representing the so-called and greatly exalted Real Woman, and in the end this struggle just creates an impossible dichotomy between two, often subjective, extremes.
Another problem, as I see it, is that no matter how you socially and critically present your body to the world, others will judge and evaluate the sincerity of your position. In other words, the “fat” person who says “I love my body just the way it is,” is often judged, by others, as having developed a positive attitude as a form of coping, as having accepted their lack of success in losing weight or obtaining a different shape, and thus their seemingly healthy body image is viewed as a form of posturing.
And less frequently, but still possibly, is the thin woman who we judge as celebrating her figure only because she has been divinely deprived of “curves” and has no choice but to accept her shape. Why is it so hard for a woman to convince other women that she actually likes her body as it is? Why are we—men and women—skeptical of other men and women’s claims of satisfaction?
No matter how much we talk about fat shaming and thin shaming, being fat is still vilified and thin shaming is seen as existing only as a form of rebuttal.
And no matter how much we applaud celebrities, such as Jennifer Lawrence, who tell people who tell her to lose weight where to go, there is still a prevailing ideological preference for slimness. While physical preferences and ideals of beauty and sexiness evolve over time, and change in relation to the popularity of celebrities and other figures who represent different body types, I sense that confidence and self-love in the so-called “plus sized” woman continues to be judged as a form of reluctantly accepting that which one cannot change.
I come to this hot topic as a woman, with a body, who feels ultimately in between and exposed to potential attack from either side. One person who reads this may think “how can Zaren think she’s in between—she’s fat!” while another may think “I can’t believe she doesn’t consider herself slim, she’s so small!” But the point is, I am both and neither, and it doesn’t matter which one I really am.
Top Comments
This is another case of women being their own worst enemies. The level of criticism between women astounds me. Just bloody stop being so critical of each other and understand that you all have different shapes and sizes.
There's so many more important problems on earth to be concerned about.
I, like most men, just don't get this obsession with weight and shape.
Get rid of your scales. Find a size clothes that you feel healthy and comfortable. And with neither starving or binging try to stay in that size, with enough exercise to maintain muscle tone, upright posture and able to walk at least 1km briskly without gasping for air, and sleep well & eat a good range of healthy food.
Aiming for a perfect model or 'what's your excuse' size & shape, & weight is only ever going to excessive pressure or disappointment. There will always be heaps of women slimmer, taller, shorter, fatter, prettier , plainer, fitter or less fit than you.
I'm more concerned now about living longer and healthy enough to do every physically I need or want to do