Monday, May 3, 2010

Body Shaming: Facebook Style

Some of my friends have been joining the following group on Facebook:

"Real women have curves.... Not the body of a 12 year old boy"

Aside from the annoying idea that only women who have a certain body shape are "real women," note the body shaming of thin women that is occurring here. Women better not be too thin, or they won't be real women at all!

The media regular bombards people, women especially, with messages that our bodies are cause for humiliation and inadequacy. Although much of this body shaming is directed at fat women, it is also directed, Hollywood gossip magazine/Perez Hilton-style, at women's bodies that are too thin, too muscular, too small-breasted, too large-breasted, too fat-assed, too flat-assed, too real, or too plastic.

Basically, the message is if you're a woman and you have a body you can't fucking win. And that's why women need to take pride in their own bodies without ridiculing the bodies of other women in the process.

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