Let’s Celebrate Our Bodies Of All Sizes And Skin Of All Colours

I have seen a lot of posts lately on social media saying - “I don’t have abs and that makes me a real woman.” Or “I don’t have fair skin. I have real skin.” Or “Real women have curves.” Or “I love to eat and I don’t starve to fit into your standards.”

Here’s the thing - These sound very cool and motivating, but do you see the underlining tone where we as women are still judging another woman based on size, shape and skin colour? This is not feminism! This is Body Shaming! Body shaming essentially means shaming or discriminating against someone based on their body type. Though most commonly, it is used in defence of plus sizes; other forms are equally common but many people don’t even realise they’re doing it.

Credit: Luis-galvez by-Unsplash

A real woman is a woman! Period. Whether she fits into society’s norm of beauty or not is irrelevant. By putting down any woman - thin or plus size, short or tall, dark, dusky or fair - we are feeding into the same mindset that we think we are speaking up against!

A real woman is a woman! Period. Whether she fits into society’s norm of beauty or not is irrelevant.

Body shaming doesn’t just stand for shaming someone for not having a perfect body. Calling a woman with abs fake is shaming too. Assuming a thin girl is starving herself is also shaming. Ask anyone, plus-sized or thin, metabolism and genetics play a huge part and that doesn’t change for any of us. We are all striving for a healthier (not thinner) version of us!

A girl with fair skin was born with it and has as little control over the colour as a girl with dusky skin. We are all in the same boat! Statements like ‘just a pretty face’ implying a girl is dumb because of how she looks, is shaming as well. NEWS FLASH - Reverse shaming is still shaming!

A girl with fair skin was born with it and has as little control over the colour as a girl with dusky skin.

Once, a fellow blogger who I didn’t even know that well then, told me on a common chat group, that – “All thin people are bitches/snobs!” Fortunately, when I highlighted that assuming a person’s personality based on their size is in fact shaming and still uncalled for even if they’re thin, other bloggers on the group backed me up on it.

I am by no means trying to take away attention or importance from the fact that all body types should be celebrated and that we need strong examples of what real beauty should stand for. But that doesn’t and should not include putting down or discriminating any other body or skin type.

Fighting against uncalled norms means fighting against ALL of them. Not reversing them and turning against a different set of women!

#Feminism calls out for equality between men and women. Then when did we women stop being equal to each other in all that? And why have we decided to judge each other based on physical appearances?

Those social media posts listed above aren’t ‘cool’! We don’t even realise it, but subconsciously they have exactly the opposite effect. They pit us against each other. So, let’s celebrate our bodies of all sizes and skin of all colours. And let’s do it without putting down each other.

Every woman is a real woman. She exists. She has a mind of her own. She has a body that’s her own. She has feelings!

Forget if you’re a feminist, just think of it as a human - Would you like it if someone judged you for your appearance? No! Then don’t do it yourself!