The latest craze in “Feel beautiful in your own skin” comes to us from a plus-sized lingerie company called Curvy Girl Lingerie. Real women are encouraged to send in photos of themselves wearing lingerie, without the help of photoshop, in order to show the world that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. It seems as good a movement as all of Dove’s real beauty campaigns, right?
I think it’s important to say this before anything else. I am what most people would consider to be a curvy girl. I rock that 36-24-36 when I’m lying, and 39-27-39…40 when I’m telling the truth. While I’d like to be littler, I’m not overweight. I’m certainly not obese. It’s called an “hourglass figure.” It’s the body type (type, not body) that has been coveted for centuries. On behalf of curvy women everywhere — real, curvy women — we want our word back. I don’t know when “curvy” became a euphemism for “cheese fry receptacle,” but it did. I’m not into it.
“Fit Mom” Maria Kang recently spoke out against Curvy Girl Lingerie in a much more diplomatic fashion. She was disappointed that they are promoting an unhealthy body as “beautiful.” There is an obesity epidemic in this country, and she believes we should be promoting health instead of pretending that morbid obesity is okay, because that way, fewer feelings get hurt. She was removed from Facebook because of it. And all this time, I thought that the freedom of speech was an inalienable right.
Here she is sassing it out with Curvy Girl Lingerie’s creator, Chrystal Bougon.
Kang is getting a lot of flack for her statement, but I say wake up and smell the carotid arteries, people. Morbid obesity is not healthy, and it’s not sexy. I firmly believe that no one should be made to feel uncomfortable in their own skin. I do not believe in fat-shaming, but I also don’t believe in telling everyone we’re all the same, when we’re very obviously not. Nobody is telling me that I’m good at football “in my own way.” Nobody is telling me that I’m a math wiz “in my own way.” Nobody is telling me that I keep my room clean “in my own way.” I’m not. I don’t. I’m not good at those things. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of people who are superior to me in those ways, and I’m not mad at society for noticing.
Here is the cold, hard truth: not everybody is beautiful. Sure, there’s inner beauty. Whatever. I’m talking about pure aesthetic beauty — not everybody has it. It’s based on facial and body symmetry…a body symmetry that is related to health. Believe it or not, beauty is more a matter of fact than opinion, and not everybody measures up. That’s okay.
Just because some people aren’t beautiful doesn’t mean they should be made to feel that they’re lesser, but emphasizing the importance of everyone believing themselves to feel beautiful is actually still just society placing emphasis on beauty. We shouldn’t fat-shame, or ugly-shame, or old-shame, or any kind of shame. Everyone should absolutely feel confident in themselves, without having to deal with people trying to make them feel bad about the way they look. A certain level of self-acceptance is quintessential to our well-being, but insisting that being told we’re beautiful is the only way to accept ourselves is, in my opinion, just as bad.
I didn’t accept that I’m not an athlete by forcing my phys ed teachers, classmates, and high school coaches to alter their perceptions on what “getting the volleyball over the net” looked like. I didn’t accept that maybe economics wasn’t my thing by changing the rules of supply and demand. I realized, Hey. There are plenty of things I’m awesome at, and plenty of ways I am better than some of my peers. This is not one of them.
No one is expecting for every person to be supermodel thin. That’s unrealistic, but there is certainly a healthy range of weights and sizes that everyone should strive for. If you don’t want to strive to be healthy, then that’s your prerogative. If you feel comfortable being unhealthy, that’s on you. But don’t expect the world to put on your rose-colored glasses and believe that obesity is a good look, or that the lifestyle you’ve chosen is medically safe, just because you’re comfortable with it.
Maybe Fit Mom was a bitch, because she hurt everyone’s feelings. Maybe I am too. But that doesn’t make the words any less true. Being a “real” woman shouldn’t be synonymous with gigantic. We need to stop acting like you’re either 97 or 208 pounds. There is an in between, and one extreme is just as unnatural and as unhealthy as the other. So, the haters can hate on Fit Mom all they want. It doesn’t make her wrong.
[via Jezebel]
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Veronica Ruckh
Veronica (@VeronicaRuckh) is the Director of Total Sorority Move for Grandex, Inc. After having spent her undergraduate years drinking $4 double LITs on a patio and drunk texting away potential suitors, she managed to graduate with an impressive GPA and an unimpressive engagement ring -- so unimpressive, in fact, some might say it's not there at all. Veronica has since been fulfilling her duties as "America's big," a title she gave to herself with the help of her giant ego. She has recently switched from vodka to wine on weekdays. Email her at veronica@grandex.co
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