Too Skinny

I’m not sure if a lot of people can relate to this issue, but I’m sure there’s at least a few people out there who can. It’s sort of a “hot button” issue right now. Recently, there has been a movement toward accepting “all body types,” but I would argue that this doesn’t actually embrace ALL body types. In Dove’s Real Women campaign, they feature mostly full-figured women, there is all kinds of stuff on the internet saying “real women have curves.” I’m all for accepting all body types and acknowledging that all women (and men) are beautiful no matter what their body type happens to be, but there seems to be an idea that thin is not beautiful; some people say it is “unhealthy.” But, we women should love, accept, and acknowledge the beauty of women of ALL body types: thin, average, muscular, curvy.

Currently, I am about 5’5” and my weight fluctuates but typically stays under 120 lbs. All my life I’ve been told that I was “too skinny.”  All through junior high and high school, people asked me if I was bulimic or anorexic. Once I was even compared to Gumby. I’ve been told by people of all ages that I need to eat more. I eat a lot. That I need to gain weight. That I’m “too skinny.” Once, I made the mistake of trying to relate to a group of beautiful, curvy, college girls who were complaining that when they went home, their mothers griped at them that they needed to lose weight. I said something along the lines of “I know what you mean, my mom is always telling me that I need to gain weight.” I guess I can see how they wouldn’t see this as sympathetic, but I really was trying to relate to them in the only way that I could, and I guess that was a mistake. They all looked me up and down and said, “You do need to gain weight.” I walked away from that exchange feeling rejected, hurt, misunderstood, put down, and ugly.

Girls and women should not be made to feel like their body type is unhealthy, unlovable, and ugly whether they are curvy or “stick-straight.” I am just as beautiful as the next woman, even if I am small. I am just as worthy of being loved. I do not starve myself or purge myself to be slender, and even if I did, that wouldn’t make me any less beautiful.

We all have enough body image issues as it is. We don’t need to be adding anymore to each other. If you don’t want someone pointing at you and saying that you weigh too much, then you had better not turn around and point at someone and say that they weigh too little.

So, ladies, step off the scales, drop the measuring tape and look around at all your fellow women and see that they ARE beautiful, no matter the body type.

Stay Beautiful!

Sharon