It’s become the norm these days to judge women based solely on their appearance- whether that may be their body type, weight, height, hair color or facial features. I do this every day without even noticing what I’m doing, as does the rest of society. Am I proud of this? No, not at all. And to whomever is reading this, you too have judged a women based solely off of her appearance, even if you won’t admit to it.
Female athletes are judged by the media everyday based on the figure of their bodies. As the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics are taking place, the amount of body shaming via social media has begun to rocket sky high. Since April 2016, female athletes’ appearances were commented about and exposed on social media 278.3 million times and that number keeps growing daily. Of course an Olympic gymnast, for example, is going to have a different build and body type than most women would.
Gymnasts are all very short and petite (as the intense sport stunts their growth) as well as all muscle, obviously. They have thick, muscular legs, as well as a muscular behind and little cleavage, allowing them to sport a somewhat bare chest. Now what’s wrong with having a flat chest? If you’d ask me, I’d say it’s somewhat a new trend. Having tiny boobs means you can wear the dainty lace bralettes that were all the rage this summer, or wear backless dresses or basically wear anything with a plunging neckline without having to worry about your boobs falling out.
Mexican gymnast Alexa Moreno, who is currently competing in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics, has been body shamed by Twitter users after competing in the women’s individual all-around qualification. Moreno is a petite girl, as she’s 4 foot 9 inches and weighs under 100 pounds. However, the various body shaming tweets targeted her figure and physical physique as one comment compared her body to the shape and size of a pig.
Dove has formed a powerful campaign called #MyBeautyMySay which sheds light on the unfair criticism that female athletes received based on their appearance. The #MyBeautyMySay campaign features stories of real women who have stood up for their own beauty, as well as encouraging women everywhere to stand up for their beauty. Former Olympic gymnast and gold medalist Shawn Johnson has teamed up with Dove and the #MyBeautyMySay campaign as she was judged solely on her looks when competing in the Olympics. Shawn describes her gymnastics career as being frustrating as she was always compared to her teammate Nastia Lukin who was much taller, longer and leaner. Shawn says the media would describe herself as being “bulky, stocky, powerful, too big, too short, too fat.”
Now why is it fair for normal, average people to take to social media sites such as Twitter to body shame these beautiful, athletic women? It’s not. These women are tremendous athletes who have dedicated years of their lives to be the best in the world at their sport and earn themselves a spot in the Olympic games. The women who are constantly being body shamed have accomplished more than the majority of us will in a lifetime, and are much healthier and more in shape than those who take to body shaming are.
