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Body shaming, fat shaming and vicious gossip

Warning, this post asks a lot of questions and hopes you ask of them of yourself at the end.

Why is it that we feel able to comment on what other women should or shouldn’t wear, do or shouldn’t do based on her body size?

What is it about overweight bodies that makes us feel that we can comment in a way that we wouldn’t if the person was gravely thin, or even just skinny?

What is it about body shaming other women that makes us feel good?

Does it make us feel good about ourselves?

Why does even Disney not want fat women in its stories?

Why are we more comfortable with the idea that a fat woman is eating her feelings than an anorexic is starving hers?

I would love it if the world boycotted People Magazine, heat and all those other shallow tabloids that spend their lives circling parts of women’s bodies in red, and making comments about them as though it were news that women have cellulite/stretch marks/arm rolls/stomach rolls/bad hair days.

Even when actresses demand that photoshop not be used to make them look a particular way, magazine companies ignore it.

Why are we so afraid of diverse women’s bodies?

What is a bikini body? Is it not a body with a bikini in it?

Why is a hairy armpit worth of comment, or a hairy leg worthy of shame?

Why is a woman eating something so shocking that a whole blog shaming them can exist?

Why are female opera singers shamed for their body size?

Why are female politicians unable to do their job without comments about their outfits, how tired they look, or how their hair should be?

The message of our repeated body shaming of women is that we’re uncomfortable with big and powerful women.

We are uncomfortable with women who take up space. We are uncomfortable with women who do not shrink as a reaction to the unhealthy patriarchy we live in.

We want them to feel ashamed for not conforming to beauty ideals which are, quite frankly, harmful to women’s health and empowerment.

We want them to know that they do not fit in, and so we will not take them seriously.

We want them to know that if they try to just get things done rather than care about their appearance, we will hold them back.

We want them to know that women’s bodies are not their own, they are public space.

We need to stop this unhealthy behaviour. Women, we need to stand together.

It is not acceptable to gossip about a colleague’s weight gain. It is not acceptable to say we want equality when we reign each other’s power in all the time.

We need to stop buying the stupid magazines that encourage us to see other women as objects.

Instead of spending your time in the queue punishing yourself because you would actually like to buy that chocolate, why not spend your time turning those magazines over so we cannot look upon their revolting anti-women covers.

Follow Jen Thorpe on Twitter.

Follow Women24 on Twitter or like us on Facebook.
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