My fight against body shaming.

While this is a topic that I think about quite a lot in my life, it is something that I have been doing some reading on the last couple of days and I have found myself to be quite enraged and very motivated to do something about it, or talk about it, or just do something - ANYTHING!

Fat shaming - well, body shaming in general.

To begin I would like to make a statement (one that I always thought was pretty obvious). Shaming is not a catalyst for change, it is a paralytic.

Not only does this effect women, more and more men are being shamed for what they look like.

The fuel behind body shaming is strong in society these days, it has gotten to a point in which people of every shape and size are being shamed for how they look. What has become of us? Where is the acceptance and support that we should be giving one another instead of tearing someone down for being a larger size or for being thin.

With the rise of body positive movements comes a rise of shame. I love the fact that people such as HonorCurves (#honormycurves) and Tess Munster (#effyourbeautystandards) have been a driving force behind women accepting their bodies whatever they may look like, but there are still human beings in this world that feel like shaming individuals is the most important why to get the point across.

Men and women who are on the larger side are being told that they are 'too fat' and 'unhealthy' but on the opposite end of the spectrum we have individuals telling someone who is thin that they need to eat a sandwich or that bones are not sexy. I think my breaking point was seeing a meme online that had a simple statement - "An idiot can drive a straight line, but it takes skill to handle curves." How is that even relevant!? I do not find it clever in the least, I find it incredibly reductive and I think we need to focus on a positive outlook!

I suppose my point here is: from now until the end of this world there will be people of all different sizes and shapes inhabiting the earth. Instead of focusing on the 'flaws' that people have, we celebrate how each and every person is unique and beautiful! If we decided on some sort of perfect body for men and women things would get pretty boring. We would lose attraction to one another and there would be no qualities to admire in one another.

As a woman who has a set of curves, I struggle with hearing the negative comments about my weight and how I look. People have told me for years that I 'have a cute face' but my body isn't perfect... well no kidding it isn't perfect! The last time I checked the person barking these comments at me were pretty far from perfect as well! I strive to live a healthy lifestyle and I will have days that I do not eat the best food and I could probably exercise on a regular basis more often, but I do not consider myself unhealthy in the least. People assume that my diet consists of fries and ice cream but in reality I consume primarily fruits and vegetables - but of course this is not something that people assume when they look at an individual who is plus size. Assumptions need to be thrown away and in turn we need to try genuinely caring about people and taking some time to get to know them as a person instead of treating them like a disease or a fetish. We should no longer assume that someone who is thin rarely eats and we should no longer assume that someone who is larger is eating on a constant basis.

The more we shame people the more we push them into a cave of depression and self harm - that helps nobody! It breaks my heart that I allowed the comments and my own self doubt to drive me towards and eating disorder and it breaks my heart even more that this is happening to more and more men and women (especially our younger generations) every single day. The awareness needs to be created and we need to raise a generation of acceptance.

From this day forward I will strive to help end body shame and bring awareness to the issues that it is creating. I will accept people for who they are and what they are because the shape of your body should have no bearing. We should be strong self loving individuals, always.

My hope is that positive energy will one day spread much faster than negative energy does.

Be Well.