Real Women
Both The Rotund and Elastic Waist are out to remind us of one very important fact: thin people are not the enemy. First up, The Rotund:
“And so you get people who describe models in truly awful terms. You get people who throw around the slogan ‘Real women have curves!’ as if thin women aren’t real women…. But the anger directed at thin people in general isn’t accomplishing anything. I’m sure, for some people, it’s going to be a really important step on the road to self-acceptance. I just don’t want it to be yet another broken paradigm we are trying to put in place of the current (equally as broken) one. Let’s recruit thin people as our body acceptance allies. They are being fed the same bucket of horse shit that we are. They have their own body issues. And while we might wish we had their problems, they still have problems. It would reflect well on us not to dismiss them so lightly.”
And Weetabix on Elastic Waist:
“We have fat friends. We have skinny friends. We have in-between friends, and friends who used to be skinny, and friends who used to be fat, and friends who never notice whether we’ve lost or gained 20 pounds or if they do, they certainly don’t say anything about it. So why do we hate the Angelina Jolies and Nicole Kidmans out there?”
In general, I feel fine about thin people and people who are losing or want to lose weight; I think people should be at whatever weight feels healthy and comfortable for them. On the other hand, I know I am guilty of a double standard when I find it okay to speak critically about Courtney Love in a bathing suit, but not Tyra Banks. But I’ll work on it.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Celebrities, Courtney Love, Tyra Banks
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ITA. Dividing people up into camps and then battling isn’t good for anyone. We’re all in this life together.
It’s a really nice sentiment, yes. People of all body sizes should band together and dismantle sizism. Sadly, the vast majority of slim people I’ve come in contact with don’t know about body acceptance or WANT to learn about it: because they’re accepted (for the most part) by society and sizism isn’t their problem.
anonymouse, I guess you assume that if a woman’s size is accepted by society, then she is perfectly happy with her own body. As this web site so deftly points out, we have to stop accepting our own sizism against our own bodies before we expect society to follow.
Not to mention, “body acceptance” emcompasses so many other non-standard body conditions than just being overweight. Small boobs, big feet, crooked teeth, double amputation, etc.