I am not perfect. I am not real. I am not even classified as a "woman".
“The Perfect Real Body”……. from this ad, it is boosting the confidence of a number of females reminding them that their body is perfect.
Way to go.
Some would laugh and think “yes! that’s so true! size 0 shouldn’t even exist!”
Well guess what? My body should not exist because it is not “real" nor is it “perfect” nor is it a figure of a “woman".
I am a size 0. or XXS or XS whichever is the smallest.
I used to be bigger but ever since I started practicing yoga a decade ago, things began to slim down. I eat. Trust me I do. But my metabolism seems to be bigger than my appetite
People look at me sometimes with a bit of annoyance and sometimes with jealousy or maybe envy that I can eat ‘till i drop and still not gain an ounce. I am not proud of it nor am I annoyed. it’s just my body. I have learned to accept it. But I admit, I don’t like when people tell me I “should eat more.” because I’m "too skinny and that my face is too thin." I wonder why nobody tells me to eat more because my boobs are too small. I mean, boobs are plain fat right? Why nobody cares or dares to make a comment about my chest but everyone just feels they have to right to judge my body size?
When the media posts a photo of a thin female, tons of body-shaming comments follow “she’s not real!” “she needs to eat a burger.” So now, there are campaigns featuring “real women” and people are like hallelujah! finally! real people! now we know how clothes look on real people.
It seems like it is a crime to be small.
I am not writing to complain to the world and to convince everyone to go on a diet. What I want to say is - why can’t we be more understanding and more compassionate about what size clothes we wear? Why can we accept different hair colour, skin colour, eye colour, different height but not different body weight? Why are we are open enough to accept gay love but we still say horrible things to bodies different from ours?
Body-shaming is bullying.
Humans, just like other species in the animal kingdom come in different shapes and sizes including height and weight. It is ok to be small and it is ok to be big. It is ok to see bones and to see folds. Whether the body is severely under weight or intensely over weight, every body is REAL. Because we all breathe and our hearts beat and we all bleed. Every body is PERFECT in their own special way.
So STOP all body-shaming now. If you keep on shaming another body, your body will continue to be shamed.
image credits
https://twitter.com/dove/status/527883952053174272 https://storify.com/krobesongrubb/body-shaming-and-body-acceptance-1
