Lately, as I scroll disinterestedly through Facebook, I've seen some clickbaits with a tagline that says something like "Demi Lovato says Taylor Swift's squad doesn't have 'normal' bodies" and that these women are "unrealistic." This is not only limited to Demi, of course. So many other women shame women who are "too" thin, or are "too" promiscuous for promoting false body images. That is all bullshit. Complete, utter bullshit.
Women and men are socialized to believe that a certain body for women is considered "ideal." In the United States, this body is tall, slim, svelte. We are all taught to aspire to this body from the second we are born. Advertisements, television shows, and movies all feature leading women who are tall and slim.
Contrastingly, evil women, and women who are meant to be laughed at, are portrayed as short, oftentimes fat. Maybe throw some glasses on there.
This is a process of socialization through the media and into the media. We are raised to be disgusted by fat, to fear the fat on our own bodies, and to help our fellow women get fat off of their bodies. Fat women experience discrimination in the workplace and everyday life. As such, how can we continue to blame individual women for representing "unrealistic" body goals? It has been proven over and over that women are socialized to believe that a certain body type is "ideal," as well as that this body type is never attainable. Losing weight is a constant goal for women, indicating that there is not end game in sight. Most women believe that they are overweight, despite the very small amount that are.
The result of this socialization is the prevalence of eating disorders among women. The intense institutionalized need to lose weight leads so many women to disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. And why would you ever blame any person suffering from a mental disorder for their own plight? It is absolutely ridiculous to think that picking on individual women for being thin is going to solve any problems that our culture has regarding weight.
It is the time to build women up, to support our sisters in learning to love themselves for who they truly are. It is time to reverse the vicious cycle the media has taken a part of in shaping what women think is not even just perfect, but standard. Call out people who bodyshame women! Protest television shows and movies that portray a certain body type as being a goal for all women. It sounds like a big thing to do, but big actions must follow big problems, right? On the homefront, we should encourage parents and teachers and other adults of import to teach young girls that true beauty is not derived from the television, but rather from all of the beautiful things we find inside the women that influence us. We do not have to take this anymore, and we should never be blaming individual women for what a poisonous culture has inflicted upon us.
