Size Shaming - Happening In ALL Shapes and Sizes.
Smaller Women.
A while ago I read a post on Leanne Woodfull's blog about how skinny girls are getting heavily criticised, at the time I recall being confused and dismissing it, but it's an extremely valid argument. Unquestionably as a result of the fashion industry, largely, smaller/skinner body sizes have become popular, for want of a better description. Though as a result of this "popularity" or being featured in magazines has created criticism. For some women this arguably creates an unrealistic body image but for others it's their image.
I can understand why it might be criticised in the sense that this unrealistic body image can be destructive, but at the same time, every female should recognise their own body image and realise what is realistic for them. I suppose one associates a lot of smaller women with eating disorders and as Leanne pointed out to be in a Tweet that small women shouldn't automatically be associated with eating disorders. I personally know a few girls who have been under sever scrutiny for being "too skinny."
Size shaming for smaller women is more evident on social media I would think. Though it's entering into larger cultural spheres. A variety of female celebs have come under scrutiny for being "too skinny" or "dangerously thin" including Christina, Britney and Linsey. Nicki Minaj critics smaller women in her controversial video Anaconda with the lyrics "fuck those skinny bitches in the club.... fuck you if you skinny what..." This somewhat ties into ideas of women who are skinny and sexual attraction. It has become commonly suggested that smaller women are not sexually attractive. This idea I'll discuss further in relation to larger women. Nicki is just one example of a woman shaming another woman in terms of size. This is something which has become normalised, consider how women you know or even friends might discuss other women "they've gained weight," "they're too thin," and so on. This normalising of females criticising other women is half the problem.
Larger Women.
Arguably this particular body size is what experiences the most scrutiny. I'm saying this purely on the basis of female magazines which almost all have promoted media. Causing women who are or aren't larger to feel insufficient or as though their body isn't beautiful. The promotion of a diet is unquestionably everywhere. Unfortunately the idea of larger body has become a cultural phenomenon as many young girls and women are unhappy with their shape and either on a diet or doing something in order to attempt to change it.
If you consider this snapshot from the google search "magazine diet" there's a variety of types of magazines from health/fitness to fashion to even celebrity culture magazines. However most notably in this particular snap there is an issue of Seventeen Magazine featured which is targeted at younger girls with the caption "perfect legs, butt and abs."
As I mentioned the idea of sexual attraction comes into size shaming a lot. This is simply to do with biology. In essence, men are attracted to women with larger hips as this is a sign of fertility and ability for child birth, undoubtedly a primitive aspect of the male psyche. The issue I personally have with size shaming of larger women is the idea of what is "acceptably curvy," the same can be argued in relation to smaller women.
Muscular Women.
A body size which I think a lot of people forget about is the muscular or athletic woman. In more recent years my awareness to the criticism muscular women experience has grown, predominantly as a result of my sister's interest in health and fitness. A lot of women who are more muscular are criticised for being "too muscular, butch, or manly." Interestingly enough this ties into a lot of ideas around gender, not to bore you with the details but there is an idea of active/passive roles in relation to male/female roles. Sport needless to say is active and subsequently considered to be masculine, hence this is one reason I would consider it to be a size that is scrutinised heavily.
In 2012 Jodie Marsh was featured in a documentary about her experience becoming a body builder. Having watched this documentary one cannot help but admire her dedication and admiration to this particular sport. However when reports about Jodie's new body surfaced they seemed to concentrate upon her new "beefy bod." Which may seem obvious since this is the main subject of the report however the dedication and hard work Jodie put in was entirely dismissed.
The idea of being sexually attractive also ties into this body shape. That these women are considered too butch or manly and thus unattractive. Arguably as I said early it relates to gender, these women are strong which women "shouldn't be." If anyone remembers the episode of The Simpson's where Marge decides to become a bodybuilder, you might remember how she's portrayed as manly and how Homer is "scared to make love" to her.
The idea of "shaming" more specifically is something I have a huge issue with as this promotes guilt as the main medium of body insecurity. In other words that the female body should be controlled, this is apparent when you consider words used by diet commercials "control, loss, say no, work, determination." It's an industry creating insecurities and then using them to promote whatever is being sold.
I'm not on either side of any of these arguments that I've mentioned above. All I would seek to promote is for girls and women to be happy with their body image as much as possible and to recognise the influence of magazines, the media and social media's in constructing body images as opposed to the girls/women themselves. All shapes and sizes exist and unfortunately they are shamed. Another point is that what is promoted in the media is generally extremes of the body images mentioned above which fuels the shaming or justifies it. I've featured a super short video below which shows how much Photoshop can change your body and this I think is something everyone should be aware of. The idea of what is "acceptably skinny/curvy/athletic" is something to consider - who determines this? In reality it should always be you.
All images from Google.
