Recently I've been taken back by some extremely rude comments that were made about someone's body. Their body was too "distracting", and they need to cover it up. This disturbed me. There's obviously cases where there needs to be a level of professionalism in the workplace, and in public, but ultimately, people should be able to wear what makes them feel good, and what makes them comfortable. It's almost mind blowing that people go through the trouble to deliberately make someone feel bad about the way they look.
Body Shaming is NOT okay. Whether you're a size 14, or a size 2; it is just not okay. I've had multiple comments made to me, "Jeez Shana, eat a damn burger". While this is all good fun usually, I do have my own personal self image issues, and to be honest those comments don't usually help. I'm not the only person who gets sick of these comments I'm sure. Making comments about someone's body type in a negative connotation is just sickening as well. This summer I went to Panera bread and these two girls were behind me. One girl was going to get a chicken caesar salad, and the other wanted a broccoli cheddar soup. The one friend said to the other "you sure you want to get the soup? That's not going to help you lose weight?" the other one replied "well, I'm hungry, and it's not too unhealthy", and then her friend said "Fine, be fat.", and continued to walk away. My eyes literally widened, and it took absolutely EVERYTHING in me to not flip out. I told the one girl who wanted to get the soup that she is beautiful and she can get whatever she wants. She told me that her friend means well, and it's usually never meant to hurt her. I believed her, but sometimes we unconsciously make these really mean comments to our friends, or family about their bodies, and that could really affect them mentally.
It's also important to remember, girls aren't the only people who face body shaming. Boys do as well, people who use they/them, xe, ze/zir, etc.... It's important that we all make the conscious effort to spread body positivity to everyone. No one should have to feel bad about being heavier, having bigger boobs, being more skinny than others. It's important to embrace people as individuals and make sure people are HEALTHY. No one is perfect. Perfection is barely even a real thing. I want to live in a world where it's okay to be who you are, and people to LOVE themselves. It may take a while to get there, but I do believe that we can all get there someday if we try hard enough for this.
