You're scrolling through Instagram and you see a photo of a girl in her bathing suit. She looks to be about 22 years old. From what you can tell she is average height but what you notice the most is her below average body mass index (BMI). Being a member of society, the way that it is today, anyone's first reaction to seeing this photo would be to comment "you really should eat a cheeseburger."
What you don't see in this photo is that this girl has been a runner her entire life, track and cross country. The photo also doesn't show you that her parents are both very tall and lean. You don't see the well rounded meals she eats three times a day. You don't see that the weight doesn't seem to stick, and no matter how many times she swipes into the gym she can't seem to gain any muscle. All you see in this photo is a girl with a completely different body type. You see a girl who looks differently than you do. But society views this photo as just another skinny girl who really should eat a cheeseburger.
Here is the thing: you can tell a skinny girl to eat a cheeseburger. You can tell her to eat twelve cheeseburgers, two sides of fries, a side salad, and a milk shake. The reality of it all is that no matter how much or how little she eats, it may affect her in a different way than it affects someone else. The food she consumes might go straight to her thighs, or she might put it all away and leave you wondering where she stores it. Every body is different in the way it digests food, gains weight, and gains muscle. But that is the beauty of it all, every body is different and every body is beautiful.
As a society we see two groups of women, those who need to eat cheeseburgers and then everyone else. I say that there are only two groups of women because we would never tell a woman she is overweight and we would never tell a woman that she should really stop going to the gym because she is becoming too muscular. To our society, that is body shaming and that is socially unacceptable. For some reason our society tip toes around body shaming women who are overweight and over muscular but we are not afraid to stomp loudly all over women who are underweight. Society would never comment on a plus size model photo "you really need to eat a salad" or a body builders photo "you should really put down the weights". Being "too skinny" is viewed as negative but when it comes to telling someone they are "too skinny" society is not afraid to say it.
Either way you look at it, an insult is an insult, it is all body shaming. Please don't tell me to eat a cheeseburger if I can't tell you to eat a salad.
