Skinny shaming...?

I've heard a lot recently about the idea of 'skinny shaming' and I felt like I needed to comment. First of all, I do not think it is acceptable to shame anyone for their body type. I am all about body positivity. It is never okay to make someone feel bad about their body. That is why this is a difficult topic to approach.

When Nicki Minaj released 'Anaconda' and Meghan Trainor came out with 'All About That Bass,' skinny girls everywhere got angry. Lyrics that explicitly put down skinny women and celebrated bigger women annoyed people. I get that.

But, fat women do have a much harder time being accepted in society. I have been skinny and fat. When skinny, I was always told by friends that I looked good. When fat, I am told about diets and workout routines that I could try. Nobody stared at me when I was eating in public when I was skinny but they do now. With clear disgust. People are often explicitly and openly repulsed by a fat woman, it's not so common with a skinny woman.

So while women are shamed for their bodies all the time, fat or thin, we have to acknowledge that the discrimination is not on the same level. I wish I did not have to talk about this, I wish that we lived in a world where people looked beyond body shapes but unfortunately, that's not the case. Quite frankly, it annoys me to hear skinny women saying 'oh but we experience the disgust too!' Yes, sometimes you do however, your body type is in magazines and on movie screens all of the time and society as a whole accepts it as normal and okay. Whereas, fat women are mostly viewed in a negative way. While you, as a skinny woman, may have experienced individual cases of body shaming, fat women experience it on a much larger and deeper scale.

Fat women are rarely seen as beautiful by society so if some artists are going to bring out songs celebrating them then let them have it!

Ultimately, we all need to know and accept that body shaming is never okay. In order to do this we have to acknowledge that 'skinny shaming' and 'fat shaming' are very different things.

This is what a feminist looks like...

You've probably seen/heard about these t-shirts that have emerged recently, modelled here by Ed Milliband and Nick Clegg:

There are so many issues that I have with these t-shirts. First and foremost, they seem to be attempting to address the myth that all feminists look like ugly, hairy witches. It appears that many people think feminists must all be ugly so cannot get boyfriends and are therefore, angry at men. Anyone with common sense can realise that this is bullshit without having to see these t-shirts. They are completely unnecessary.

Secondly, there are far more pressing issues that need to be addressed by feminism! The movement largely does not care if people think we're all hideous looking, most of us are more concerned with important issues affecting women around the world. So again these t-shirts are pointless. How about we put time into changing things for women instead of just putting t-shirts on public figures?

On top of this, it is another way to try and make feminism into something fashionable. Fuck that. Feminism is a political movement looking to secure equality for all women across all classes, races, sexualities all around the world. Magazines and designers need to stop trying to use it as something trendy. Because it is so much more than that. It should not be a fashion statement to claim to be a feminist. I have no issue with celebrities advocating feminism but if they are doing it as an attempt to fit in then they can fuck off. There are women everywhere dealing with inequality of gender and it should not be used to sell products of capitalism. Stop trying to make money from a really important movement.

The whole issue with David Cameron refusing to wear one of these t-shirts came from ELLE magazine. Don't get me wrong, it is great that a widely read magazine has a feminist issue on sale. But this is also a magazine, like most of them, that primarily tries to sell beauty products to women. The beauty and fashion industries make billions from women's low self esteem. This is obviously not okay. It is important that women's magazines address feminism however, we must remember that their primary function is to advertise an industry which is widely known for making women hate themselves and that is very anti-feminist.

It also seems to be men wearing these for the most part. I have no problem with men supporting feminism. However, it is a movement started for and by women. Feminism has achieved a lot with very little support from men. Women's rights movements do not need men to be successful but yes, the more support a movement has, the more likely it is to progress. It is important to remember that while these middle aged white men might claim to support feminism, they have no idea what it is like to be a woman. So their support is nice but it is more important that women are involved.

It gets worse.

There are now claims that these t-shirts were made in a very anti-feminist way. Claims have been made by female workers earning 62p an hour. If these claims are proved to be true then it just rounds off the whole fiasco with these t-shirts. Wearing one does not prove you are a feminist, refusing to wear one (as David Cameron did) does not show you are against equality. They are just pieces of material with slogans on them that are looking to show that anyone can be a feminist... something most people already know.