I know this is a very current topic at the moment and I feel the need to put my two cents in. I'm sure not everyone will agree with what I have to say but I've tried to word myself as best I can. It all started to me when songs in the media at the moment like Anaconda and All About That Bass ripping into skinny girls have caused quite the stir. I myself am very little and have been a size six jeans and size 8 top half for some time. I find several problems with this kind of message - it might not be important to everyone but it's certainly important to me.
I do have a problem with these songs but not entirely for the reason most people think. On forums, facebook etc. I see a lot of girls saying skinny girls never get bullied for their size and get all the modelling jobs etc. For a start, that is entirely not true. Being called too skinny, being asked if you're anorexic and the like is incredibly insulting - not only are you making mock of a debilitating mental and physical illness you're having a dig at someone purely because of how they look. How is that any different from calling someone fat? Aside from this, the idea of it being being "curvy" vs. skinny is absurd. Pitting one "body type" against any the other isn't a solution - it's not mutually beneficial and will bring one down whilst boosting the other which is exactly what people with a larger t-shirt size have been fighting against this whole time. I mean really, is this the most important issue at hand? Aside from this the ideal "curvy" figure is often more unobtainable than the typical small figure is - imagine Barbie tits, a tiny waist, big hips and bum and relatively slender legs. So much of your body comes down to metabolism and genetics - you can't dictate where your body fat goes. Ultimately this image can be just as harmful as the incredibly thin models we see on billboards and cat walks.
People's bodies come in different sizes - of course there is a healthy variance - some people will be more an "extreme" than others and still be healthy physically. Your body fat percentage can be anywhere between 17% and 28% and still be in the "healthy" range which is a far better measure of health than BMI. There's nothing wrong with being closer to one end than the other - trying to force your body to be bigger when it's naturally small, or smaller when it's naturally bigger isn't helping anyone, least of all yourself. What people need to accept is health is most important - I am by no means discriminating as I think different shapes can be beautiful in different ways. What I do have a problem with is the kinds of bodies that that ultimately debilitate your own health and the body's ability to function as it should. I am pro-body love but what I don't condone is bodies that are more of a hindrance to the person inhabiting it than they are a home. Having bodies at the extreme ends of the spectrum isn't a positive or healthy thing - and promoting that every kind of body is beautiful when it's potentially harming the person with that kind of body in my mind is not a good thing to do.
Finally, my issue with this whole thing is - why does everyone need other people to think they're beautiful? I was reading an article in one of the UK papers recently about an actress who was that typically gorgeous kind of figure and face when she was younger. She made an incredibly valid point that really struck with me, in her era people weren't driven to be "hot." These days we have a mania about being beautiful to everyone, what happened to being caring, intelligent, anything more substantial than just how we look? I'd rather be remember for who I was than for being a face in a million.
Personally, when I get dressed in the morning, I do it for myself. I'm not thinking what other people will think, whether they'll like my makeup, I do it because I like it. The thing I think is most important is not comparing yourself with someone else, or competing to be "the most attractive" - be the person you want to be and look how you want to look. Ultimately, how other people perceive you accounts for a very small amount of how you experience life. How you perceive yourself accounts for a huge amount of how you'll experience things - if you're thinking "she's skinnier" "she's prettier" whatever the case may be rather than enjoying the here and now as it were how much are you going to be missing out on? Enjoy your body - it lets you move, experience life and there's always going to be someone who loves what you have, one of those people should be you. No ones opinion of you is more important than your own, and please remember that you are more than just your body.
Claire x
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