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There was a Victoria Secret campaign a couple years back called 'Love My Body'. There was a lot of controversy surrounding the campaign, with people saying that the models bodies were unattainable and unrealistic. I can understand to a certain extent why there was so much hate directed towards the photo, but at the same time it seems that those people need to be reminded that the campaign wasn't titled 'Real Beauty' like the Dove campaign back in 2004, it was titled 'Love My Body'. Therefore, I don't understand why it's so preposterous that these models shouldn't be happy in their own skin. You get told that you should love the skin you're in but just because these are supermodels that are the envy of many a woman, they shouldn't love themselves, and that being naturally slim is wrong and not beautiful too.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning that being underweight or overweight is good, as it can affect your health. All I'm saying is that this prejudice over being 'too skinny' is getting ridiculous. I have read countless articles in magazines from overweight women saying that being slim is 'disgusting', and that 'size 0 isn't a size', but being a size 18 (and at risk of several serious illnesses including heart attack and diabetes) is beautiful and 'curvy'. See, that's another thing. The word 'curvy'. To me, being curvy is like Beyonce's figure. She's a US size 2 but well known for her curves, despite having a flat stomach and being generally slim. Yet in these magazines these overweight women claim that they're the curvy ones, and that unless you are 'fat' you can't be considered curvy. I couldn't disagree more. Like I said, Beyonce is a size 2 and curvy, and there's no denying that. It's just in my definition curvy is having a small waist and either big boobs, wide hips or a big booty, or all three. But maybe that's just my opinion.
I don't understand how it's wrong to call someone fat but to call someone 'disgustingly skinny' is perfectly acceptable. It completely baffles me. You wouldn't ask an overweight person 'why are you so fat?' so why is it okay to ask a slim person 'why are you so skinny?'. This body shaming has lead to a serious increase in eating disorders, something that people seem to forget about when they're calling someone vile for being slim or disgusting for being overweight. Sometimes it just can't be helped!
I'm 5ft2, weigh 7 stone, have a waist-to-hip ratio of 0.66 and I'm a dress size 4(UK). According to my BMI of 17.9, I am classified as underweight for my height. To me, I'm perfectly fine, and as long as my rib cage isn't showing then I'm happy. Because I'm a US size 0, people seem to instantly think that there's something wrong with me. I'm naturally slim, it's not as if I starve myself or eat nothing but low-calorie foods, I just have a very fast metabolism. But still, all they hear is 'size 0'.
You hear of many overweight people struggling to lose weight and to diet whereas for me, you could say that I struggle with my 'anti-diets'. Because of my super fast metabolism, it's very difficult for me to put on weight. If you didn't already know, I'm a vegetarian, and so a lot of the food I eat is fairly healthy and I like it, except my thyroid (the bit of your body responsible for your metabolism) doesn't. If I eat healthily for too long I lose too much weight and that's when I have to start going on my 'anti-diet' where I eat nothing but calorific, fatty foods. It's disgusting. I know most of you will be reading this and thinking 'I'm so jealous, I wish I could eat as much as I want whenever I want!' and don't get me wrong, I used to love being able to eat loads of fast food and not put on weight. But it's not until you eat healthily that you realise how awful bad foods make you feel. They make me miserable, tired, and weak. Not fun.
You hear of many overweight people struggling to lose weight and to diet whereas for me, you could say that I struggle with my 'anti-diets'. Because of my super fast metabolism, it's very difficult for me to put on weight. If you didn't already know, I'm a vegetarian, and so a lot of the food I eat is fairly healthy and I like it, except my thyroid (the bit of your body responsible for your metabolism) doesn't. If I eat healthily for too long I lose too much weight and that's when I have to start going on my 'anti-diet' where I eat nothing but calorific, fatty foods. It's disgusting. I know most of you will be reading this and thinking 'I'm so jealous, I wish I could eat as much as I want whenever I want!' and don't get me wrong, I used to love being able to eat loads of fast food and not put on weight. But it's not until you eat healthily that you realise how awful bad foods make you feel. They make me miserable, tired, and weak. Not fun.
A few months back I saw a tweet from a boy that said 'I don't understand why girls are so obsessed with having a thigh gap', and I agreed. A friend of his then went on to reply with something along the lines of 'Yeah but if they don't have a thigh gap they're fat'. Wow. As I gave you pretty much all my details on my weight and size, you know I'm slim but I don't have a thigh gap. I'm considered a pear shape 'cause I have small boobs, a small waist but wide hips and 'large' thighs for my size. That tweet drove me so far up the wall that it will forever be angrily engraved in my skull. I'm blatantly not overweight, but because I didn't have a thigh gap I was still considered to be 'fat'. Guys like that that obviously don't understand the female body and our ability to have curves are one of the many reasons why cases of eating disorders are increasing.
I'm going to do something that slim girls have been shamed into not saying. I love my figure. I do. Although I've been told countless numbers of times that I'm 'too skinny', that I 'need to put some meat on' and at one point even got asked if I was anorexic, I love my body. I have flaws, like everyone else, but I'm truly happy with my figure because there's no point in thinking otherwise. I'm not going to stand in front of the mirror in my underwear beating myself up over the fact that my hip bones stick out, nor am I going to cry over not having a thigh gap. I am who I am and I'm freaking proud of it. Don't like it? Then you know where you can put your opinion.
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