Shame, Shame: All Kinds of Body Shaming

It seems like women can never get it right.  If she’s too fat, then people call her lazy.  If she is too skinny, people call her anorexic.  If she wears revealing clothes and has a curvy body, people call her promiscuous.  People even have a problem with pregnant women not looking “maternal” enough! There’s always something on the news about people commenting on bodies that they deem bad, then they start criticizing.

What’s a girl gotta do to please everyone?  Plastic surgery?  We have seen in Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Girl” and Anne Sexton’s “Cinderella” what happens to girls that society deems lacking.  The girl in “Barbie Girl” was smart, healthy, and strong, but others still found fault in her.  Finally, she got a nose job and liposuction on her legs to meet the standards of beauty imposed by society and to make everyone stop ragging on her.  Similarly, the two stepsisters in “Cinderella” cut off their toe and heel like it normal to do so. If we are shame girls and women and make them feel insecure about their bodies, it may be that simply cutting off parts of our bodies may become the norm. In actuality, I think that people don’t think about what actually happens to them to create the “beautiful look” that people desire.  Take a nose job for example.  It’s a relatively easy procedure, right?  You don’t even need to stay overnight at the outpatient clinic.  People don’t actually think about the surgeon slicing the skin between their nostrils, then using a stake-like tool to straighten and “correct” the internal structures of their nose.  What about liposuction?  It’s easy to think about just sucking away the unwanted fat on your body, right?  But, surgery is surgery.  Surgeons are actually cutting into your body and making drastic changes.  The risks don’t go away…

Body shaming is still seen today.  Chontel Duncan, a fitness model, received censure when she posted a picture of herself and a friend comparing baby bumps.  People said that she was shallow and that she only worried about staying skinny.  In truth, she has a long torso and a strong core, which caused her pregnancy to look very different from other pregnant women.

                          Chontel Duncan and her friend comparing baby bumps to each other

 Likewise, Ally Brooke from Fifth Harmony has also received condemnation for her body when someone post a picture of her backside saying, “Bikinis aren’t meant for some people and @allybrookeofficial is an example.  Like put that thing away you look like a Shamu.”  Thankfully, some Instagram users defended her saying that “this kind of behavior showcases why girls of all ages are so insecure about themselves.”  We need some more people like that in this world. So, what is the whole point of this blog? Guys, please be considerate of what you say about people and don’t make them feel bad about themselves because of their body.  Aesthetic perfection is a myth, and attraction is a completely individual perception.