TW: Mentions of body shaming
Body Positivity– It means to love, nurture, and accept your body as it is now, no matter what, at the present time.
Fat-shaming– the action or practise of humiliating someone judged to be fat or overweight by making mocking or critical comments about their size.
Fat-shaming and skinny shaming are not the same and are extremely different.
Skinny shaming– It is being derogatory, shaming, degrading, insulting someone for being thin/skinny.
Fatphobia– It is often defined as the fear/dislike of fat and or obese people.
Although, fat shaming and skinny shaming are not at all similar. Never compare them as they are extremely different.
More often than not when fat-shaming is talked about or even body-shaming, in general, is talked about there is always the “Skinny girls get shamed too.” While that’s true and your pain and trauma are valid, it’s not an excuse to equate it to fat-shaming. Oppression exists on a spectrum. Someone having ‘more’ or ‘worse’ oppression does not make yours any less valid. Fat shaming is much worse, the end of the argument.
Thin bodies/skinny bodies are glorified in society, media, communities, etc. Whereas fat bodies are hated and despised. The difference in skinny shaming and fat shaming lies in the fact that fat people are discriminated against and are actively marginalized.
Fat people, especially fat women are not allowed to be visibly confident and are not allowed to proudly love themselves without people trying to bring them down. Pictures of fat women get passed around the internet and people comment on health as if they actually care (we all know they don’t) and tear them down. Fat-shaming does nothing. It has an extremely negative effect and does more damage and no good.
If you GENUINELY care about someone’s health reach out to them and speak with them. A lot of people turn to food for comfort because of trauma and in turn end up gaining weight. We all deserve to love and live in our bodies. They should never feel like prisons. Take back your body. Love your body. It belongs to you. The best weight you’ll ever lose is the weight of other people’s opinion of you.