Thin Women's Criticism For Their Body Types

It finally took some counseling and a realization that body-shaming happens to ALL body types. But why are we doing it? Does it make us feel better about our own body types to tell other women that they need to lose or gain weight? Is it really that important that we must insert our own (albeit invalid) opinion into other individuals lives? I am lucky. I have a very grounded home life and a great relationship with my parents in which I was able to move past these comments. Now, whenever I receive any sort of body-shaming remark, I smile and put it behind me. Others are not as lucky. One nasty or even well-meaning comment might send someone into a downward spiral of

Neither the hatred of men nor the hatred of thin bodies has ever caused any widespread, systematic harm against men or thin bodies. Throughout American history, women have been similarly subjected to national laws and systems created to oppress them, such as the fact that until the 19th century, a woman did not exist as a separate entity from her father, brother or husband, and that until the 1920s, women were denied the right to vote, to get a divorce and own property. From this came a deeply embedded system of systemic sexism that still exists today, which includes things like

Promotion by the media of the extraordinarily thin body types has been linked to the steady rise of eating disorders, especially among adolescents (Ballaro & Wagner, 2017). Experts believe that there are more than ten million females suffering from some sort of eating disorder and that the problems are happening in patients of younger and younger ages. The gap between the average woman’s body and the ideal body is much larger than before (Spitzer, Henderson, & Zivian, 1999). Ninety four percent of characters in the United States media, are thinner than the average woman (Gonzalez-Lavin & Smolak, 1995). The average American woman is only 5’4” tall and weighs approximately 165 pounds (Martin 2010). The media depicts happiness, wealth and success associated to unrealistic body types (Tiggemann, 2002). Not only does the media display this image, it also exhaustively provides information to encourage achievement of it as well. Whether through dieting, exercise or mild to extreme cosmetic surgery for body sculpting, women are feeling the pressure that they need to be thin and often take even the most dangerous methods to obtain this. Considering that these delusional ideals are nearly impossible for most average women, without choosing unhealthy and harmful behaviors, eating disorder theorists have proclaimed that media is supporting these habits (Levine & Smolak, 1998). It is estimated that 10-15% of girls and women between the ages of 9 and 19 are affected by eating disorders. Though the death rates vary from different studies, one thing is for sure; eating disorders can have many health risks, including death. With the unrealistic ability to achieve the super thin body image many women are still turning to these harmful methods in order to try; thus resulting in death of someone every 62 minutes as a result (Eating Disorders Coalition,

It’s a subject that in the recent years have been a subject for much controversy. Whether you go into the subject of skinny shaming, fat shaming, or simply appearance in general. We all feel the weight of society norms and media nudging our decisions.

Society has focused on eating disorders from both ends of the spectrum, and for a majority of the time the light was on those who ate too little or not at all. Magazines and television commercials have been flooded with too thin women for years, and they were respected and idolized in the fashion community, and in everyday life. People became obsessed with thinness and began to construe a false sense of normality when confronted with an overly thin individual. Searching for the perfect weight has been an ongoing issue throughout society for men and women for decades, and has never seemed to lose its popularity. Society applauds those who can keep off the weight and seem to view unhealthy individuals through a rose colored lense. America’s Next Top Model consists of the thinnest, most beautiful women who are striving to be the next big thing. These women are underweight and work hard to maintain an overly slim physique, and are idolized by millions. Weight loss is a constant struggle for millions of people and are in a constant cycle of dieting too much or intaking more calories than someone should. “There is a slippery slope from dieting to disease, as the 7 million girls and women suffering from eating disorders in this country will attest.” (Martin 1) For generations society has deemed “too thin” to be normal, and has led

“Some studies find that although black women are generally less likely to internalize thin ideal standards of beauty than white women, those who do internalize this standard show similar levels of body image concerns to white women (Shaw & Lee, 2015).” Some of their research pointed to the fact that this could be because black women have a wider range of body types of the women on television than white women leaving the social comparison with a wider range. This might also have played into the reason why black women showed lower want for approval from others on their body type. (Shaw & Lee,

Perhaps you’re just like Tamara, a 21 year old who’s struggled with body image from a young are. Growing up, she would ask her parents “How come my brothers can have ice cream, but I can’t?” “Because they don’t have a weight problem.” She considered herself “fat”. Have you ever dealt with a body image issue?

In our popular culture, the media worships the beautiful, perfectly made-up, perfectly-coiffed, perfectly-dressed, THIN woman! Our current standard of beauty is based on super models, actresses, musical artists, reality TV stars, all for the most part very thin women. With the overwhelming amount of these images bombarding us every day, the message seems clear: women who do not fit this standard of beauty are unattractive, unloveable, and unacceptable.

Society makes us, men and women, think that in order to be loved then we have to have a flat belly or be incredibly fit. However, there are a handful of people who struggle to get there through dieting that decide to take the easy way out by becoming anorexic. Being anorexic is a serious condition that affects your mental being and can eventually kill you. “Thoughts about dieting, food, and your body may take up most of your day—leaving little time for friends, family, and other activities you used to enjoy. Life becomes a relentless pursuit of thinness and going to extremes to lose weight. But no matter how skinny you become, it’s never enough” (www.helpguide.org). To be beautiful being skinny shouldn’t be the way to get there, being fit and healthy should be. There are other alternative diets that can be useful to our body’s image and can help up not only mentally but also physically. In order to be beautiful people do not need to go through any kind of eating disorder due to what society has said or done to make it seem right. Society is corrupting young men and women to be more of what celebrities aren’t; they are giving us false hope. They should be taking pics of celebrities exercising and eating right instead of them walking out the hospital from

The media often glamorizes a very thin body for women. These are also the pictures that

There is many people, especially girls, that think their body isn’t right, they look ugly, or don’t like being seeing around pretty girls. There is always a girl that feels that way, everywhere you walk, but we never notice it. If you’re fat or skinny, it really doesn’t matter, it’s just really their mind being

media, advertiseement and the fashion industry or family members might struggle with their own body image or criticism se on their kid’s’ weight,which lower their self- esteem which lower their self-esteem. In addition,it It becomes a problem as what these teenagers try to do is to fit in the judgmental society society of weight judgmental people which then lead to depression and eating disorders.

Thicker women face discrimination and pressures from society and their peers to lose weight because their bodies types are perceived as unhealthy this is the relative idea Beth MacInnis shared in “Fat Oppression”  in Consuming Passions. MacInnis discusses the health risk associated with weight loss and the misconception thicker women are unhealthy because of their body sizes. She points out that having a bigger body other than being thin the ideal beauty standard is seen as being unhealthy but for those women to lose weights by means that are risky and are shown to be unhealthy in her research. In simpler terms MacInnis is pointing out the hypocrisy in the idea that not being thin is unhealthy but for women that aren’t skinny face actual unhealthy and unethical means to lose weight.

Closer in the early 2000’s if someone’s body wasn’t super thin and little, they would be made fun of and be told to go on a diet, or to put their food down because “they don’t need it”. Now a full circle has come as the ideal body is back to Monroe. Thicker women are admired and praised while skinny and toned women are told to go put more meat on their bones. Songs like “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj and “All About That Bass” by Meghan Trainor both talk about how men would rather have a thicker girl than a slim girl --or a “silicone barbie doll,” according to Meghan. While this is uplifting to the women on the thicker end of the scale, it’s definitely demeaning to those on the other side. It seems as if one can’t be praised without the other being knocked down.

In today’s society we let the media decide everything in our lives from what clothes we should wear, music we should listen to, and how we should look. One of the biggest problems that both men and women face is body shaming, because the media sets standards for young kids and young adults., they often times try and fit the description of “perfect” which leads these people to either be depressed because they do not look like people want them to look or harm themselves in order to achieve the desired look. The most common ways the media shames both men and women are by celebrities and how they are the “perfect” body, publishing magazines of what is the ideal man and woman, and by the people who believe being “too” fat is bad and being “too” skinny is bad.