Body Shaming: Part 2

In 2016, Ashley Graham was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue. Graham was the first plus-sized model to appear on the cover of this magazine. In the issue, Graham stated, “It’s time to finally have a variety of beauty because there’s not just one standard.”

Even though Graham did something trailblazing in the beauty industry, people still ridiculed her. YouTuber, Nicole Arbour, responded to Graham’s accomplishment by saying, “Sports Illustrated swimsuit models are supposed to be the mecca of physical perfection when it comes to modeling.”

Arbour’s response implies that because Ashley is a size 16, she does not embody “physical perfection” which is what she claims is Sports Illustrated’s whole brand. Unfortunately, Arbour didn’t stop there. She went on to tear down the workout videos Graham posts saying, “Taking health advice from a fat person is like taking movie advice from a blind guy.”

Personally, I don’t understand why would you demean anyone who is trying better themselves? And also, as a bigger girl, I would rather take workout advice from someone who is closer to my size than someone who isn’t. I disagree with Arbour wholeheartedly. However, her claims inspired me to ask some questions; here are the responses of Kathryn Chapin & Hannah Hays:

What would you say to those who body shame? 

“I would say that my body doesn’t dictate how much I can do; it doesn’t dictate my mind or my worth, so why is it such a big deal to you?” questions Chapin.

What would you say those who defend body shaming by saying they’re concerned for your health?

“I’m sure that they are aware that they’re overweight and that they are at risk. I’m sure they’ve spoken to their doctor. They don’t need you to come up to them and say, ‘You’re going to die.’ But you also don’t know a person’s story or health just by looking at them. That’s none of your business anyway,” Hays says.

“You do need to check up on your friends because eating disorders do exist, but you need to know your place. You need to be close with someone or let someone who is close with that person know you’re concerned. And then, after that, you don’t need to know anything else about it. Gossiping about someone else’s health or body is not okay,” adds Hays.

What Hays is talking about is very serious. Eating disorders come in many shapes in sizes, but the most common are anorexia and bulimia. I wanted to know more about these disorders and how body shaming affects them, so I sat down with another student at MSA. Here is what she had to say:

“Growing up, I was always, like, really small and my friends would make fun of me for it. They would say, ‘You don’t eat anything’ or ‘You’re too skinny’. That was in the 4th grade; I weighed around 58 pounds. It was really bad. At that point, it didn’t really bother me though. I mean, I knew I was skinny, but that’s how I wanted to look,” confessed the student.”It was in the 9th grade when my friend said something to me and that was when I realized this was an unhealthy way of living,” she continues, “But even still, when I started to eat a lot; it didn’t really change anything. I’d still get called ‘too skinny’ and it’s really just impacted my life because I’ve always been body shamed for not being the weight society tells me I should be.”

When people think of body shaming, they often think of fat shaming, but thin shaming is very real. I sat down with Alexa Counsel, a MSA media arts student, to discuss the issue more.

“People would always pick on me for how small I am. They would try to pick me up all the time. It’s something that’s just been happening since I was little,” Counsel explains, “I’m about 90-something pounds and I assume when I turn 21, I will, maybe, be in the hundreds.”

How have your experiences with body shaming affected you?

“It’s made me feel ugly, very ugly. I still have problems now. I only wear baggy clothes and hooded jackets, and you’ll rarely ever actually see my arms.”

Has it changed the way you view yourself?

“Um, it used to, but honestly, now, I don’t really care about it as much— thinking that I should gain weight— because I know that I can’t. That’s just how my body is,” Counsel says. 

In our lives, most of us have all faced body shaming. It has made us feel unworthy and hate our bodies, but we are taking back our power. We are saying “No” to body shaming. Your body is beautiful and it is valid. You are valid. Don’t you ever feel anything less.

 

“There is no wrong way to have a body. We are more than the sum of our  parts; we are more than someone else’s expectations of us.”                                                                                          -Whitney Way Thore, Founder of No Body Shame

 

The reason that there is a body positive movement is because we’re celebrating our bodies for the magic that they are and the beautiful things they are capable of.                                                                                                                                                                                            -Mary Lambert, singer-songwriter & poet

I hope this empowers you.

-Maleigh 🙂