' Oh you can afford to have sugar in your tea with a figure like that !' came a remark from behind me at an event.
'How old are you?!' smirked the lady.
' 23 ' I spluttered.
I can safely say that I have never ever encountered such a retort from a total stranger and it completely caught me off guard. To think that after years of being called skinny or skeleton, adult life would focus more on responsibilities than just my size. Unfortunately I'm still waiting for that time to come and looks like I'm ageing to it.
'Eat something!' - a delightful greet I receive even from the most educated of people. Makes me really scratch my head and wonder if anyone has given that phrase a rational thought, a genuine thought and how absurd it sounds when you tell a petite person 'eat something!' . As if I'd been living on clean air ever since my existence.
While we are already amidst this wonderful movement to embrace plus sizes and curvaceous beauties, the idea behind it should be well implied to all the variant sizes. ALL THE VARIANT SIZES. By this I mean, the smaller sizes too; the really small, just small, extra small and whatever have you. If 'fat-shaming' is not cool then 'skinny-shaming' is unacceptable too. ( Yes, skinny - shaming is a thing ). In order to wholly accept the idea of every body is a beautiful body, I cannot stress enough on how imperative it is for people to stop picking on slender women because trust me when I say this and I say this for every girl like me, it hurts EXACTLY how it would hurt when you negatively remark about a plus-sized girl. No one deserves that either way.
I don't diet or practise any kind of portion control. I eat as I like, when I like, whatever I like. I would openly encourage any woman to live as they like, wear as they like regardless of body shape. Considering my situation as a hereditary process, the body image bullying has been dealt with since the last 3 generations, therefore, by default I too ended up facing the same comments my mother or grandmother would have heard in their youth. I can't say for the previous generations, however this decade is much more logical and sensible enough to understand that everyone is different. Even when you categorised women in pear-shaped, almond shaped, boy-shaped, apple-shaped, plum-shaped, diamond-shaped,chair-shaped, table-shaped and any other absurd shape, everyone will still have unique features to them that they will sit and scrutinise, 'If it doesn't fit a category/stereotype, ITS A FLAW' as we have this policy very finely drilled into our heads.
People. Stop.
Stop overanalysing yourselves and others around you. Learn to accept people for who they are or what they are. May be the overweight girl can't shed kilos due to a hormonal issue or may be the skinny girl has great metabolism, it could be anything. We have to be sensitive before we let words just roll out of our tongue.
There's nothing wrong in being thin, What's wrong is the attitude that surround the word 'skinny' and the constant need to make a petite person feel guilty about their frame even when its entirely natural. In a parallel sense, there's no shame nor anything wrong in being plump either. It's just a disgusting effort to kill one's esteem and will do more harm than good if women themselves with go on criticising body image. ( SENSE OF SISTERHOOD! ) Yet, we still fall for this everyday.
The concept of accepting all shapes and sizes would be the greatest irony if 'Skinny b*tch has it easy' still flouts around with no end.
Be healthy and be happy, refrain from using unkind words like 'Real men love curves only dogs love bones' because we don't particularly exist to impress any man. If you have a problem with mine or any one else's figure, it's really your problem and is best advised to keep it to yourself. Also, vague exclamations like ' skinny women hangout only with skinny women' will only make an abysmally low impression of yourself. Everyone has an opinion, I get it.
On a side note, I am fully aware of how ridiculously rant-y this post is, nonetheless the sad issue had to be expressed since limits have not been clearly vindicated. From experience, it is known that at times you have to be blunt to shut the unnecessary running criticism and this instance is one of them.
خُدا حافِظ
'How old are you?!' smirked the lady.
' 23 ' I spluttered.
I can safely say that I have never ever encountered such a retort from a total stranger and it completely caught me off guard. To think that after years of being called skinny or skeleton, adult life would focus more on responsibilities than just my size. Unfortunately I'm still waiting for that time to come and looks like I'm ageing to it.
'Eat something!' - a delightful greet I receive even from the most educated of people. Makes me really scratch my head and wonder if anyone has given that phrase a rational thought, a genuine thought and how absurd it sounds when you tell a petite person 'eat something!' . As if I'd been living on clean air ever since my existence.
While we are already amidst this wonderful movement to embrace plus sizes and curvaceous beauties, the idea behind it should be well implied to all the variant sizes. ALL THE VARIANT SIZES. By this I mean, the smaller sizes too; the really small, just small, extra small and whatever have you. If 'fat-shaming' is not cool then 'skinny-shaming' is unacceptable too. ( Yes, skinny - shaming is a thing ). In order to wholly accept the idea of every body is a beautiful body, I cannot stress enough on how imperative it is for people to stop picking on slender women because trust me when I say this and I say this for every girl like me, it hurts EXACTLY how it would hurt when you negatively remark about a plus-sized girl. No one deserves that either way.
I don't diet or practise any kind of portion control. I eat as I like, when I like, whatever I like. I would openly encourage any woman to live as they like, wear as they like regardless of body shape. Considering my situation as a hereditary process, the body image bullying has been dealt with since the last 3 generations, therefore, by default I too ended up facing the same comments my mother or grandmother would have heard in their youth. I can't say for the previous generations, however this decade is much more logical and sensible enough to understand that everyone is different. Even when you categorised women in pear-shaped, almond shaped, boy-shaped, apple-shaped, plum-shaped, diamond-shaped,chair-shaped, table-shaped and any other absurd shape, everyone will still have unique features to them that they will sit and scrutinise, 'If it doesn't fit a category/stereotype, ITS A FLAW' as we have this policy very finely drilled into our heads.
People. Stop.
Stop overanalysing yourselves and others around you. Learn to accept people for who they are or what they are. May be the overweight girl can't shed kilos due to a hormonal issue or may be the skinny girl has great metabolism, it could be anything. We have to be sensitive before we let words just roll out of our tongue.
There's nothing wrong in being thin, What's wrong is the attitude that surround the word 'skinny' and the constant need to make a petite person feel guilty about their frame even when its entirely natural. In a parallel sense, there's no shame nor anything wrong in being plump either. It's just a disgusting effort to kill one's esteem and will do more harm than good if women themselves with go on criticising body image. ( SENSE OF SISTERHOOD! ) Yet, we still fall for this everyday.
The concept of accepting all shapes and sizes would be the greatest irony if 'Skinny b*tch has it easy' still flouts around with no end.
Be healthy and be happy, refrain from using unkind words like 'Real men love curves only dogs love bones' because we don't particularly exist to impress any man. If you have a problem with mine or any one else's figure, it's really your problem and is best advised to keep it to yourself. Also, vague exclamations like ' skinny women hangout only with skinny women' will only make an abysmally low impression of yourself. Everyone has an opinion, I get it.
On a side note, I am fully aware of how ridiculously rant-y this post is, nonetheless the sad issue had to be expressed since limits have not been clearly vindicated. From experience, it is known that at times you have to be blunt to shut the unnecessary running criticism and this instance is one of them.
خُدا حافِظ
Rants are good!! Great post and a good reminder not to be so quick to say and think things about each other's bodies.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gabrielle. It's really upsetting that even in this day and age, mean things are said to your face when it comes to physique.
Delete