It’s time to end body-shaming

Body-shaming of any kind is not okay. That is something that one would assume is common knowledge.

Marginalizing  or shaming  skinny people, is a subgroup of the body shaming dispute that has been widely discussed on social media for the past year.

It is often said skinny-shaming is just as bad as fat-shaming. However, while it is never okay, there is a clear difference between shaming someone for being a bigger individual and shaming someone for being on the smaller side.

Fat-shaming is an issue that is integrated into our everyday society. With cases such as the controversial comments Abercrombie & Fitch’s CEO Mike Jeffries made in an interview with Salon in 2006 that came to light in 2013. He said that he doesn’t want “fat,” “unattractive,” or “uncool” kids wearing the company’s clothes.

Bigger people tend to have a higher probability of facing prejudice and weight discrimination than thin people. In the work place, a person’s chances of being discriminated increases as their weight increases. In a study conducted by obesityaction.org, “10 percent of overweight women reported weight discrimination, 20 percent of obese women reported weight discrimination and 45 percent of very obese women reported weight discrimination.”

The stats regarding men were lower. Three percent of overweight men reported weight discrimination, six percent of obese men reported weight discrimination and 28 percent of very obese men reported weight discrimination.

This study shows that women’s probability for discrimination is more likely and starts at a lower weight than men.

Its true fat-shaming and skinny-shaming are not the same thing. While it is hurtful to skinny-shame people, in the end being skinny is the beauty standard and being “fat” isn’t and it is the bigger people who are being represented poorly in the media.

Still, it is known that fat-shaming is wrong while others think it’s okay to skinny-shame as long as it means that another group feels better about themselves.

Just because you are attempting to empower one group, doesn’t mean you should make another feel bad about themselves.

Pop culture has definitely contributed to the issue of body shaming. It’s common practice for magazines to Photoshop models and celebrities. . When Nicki Minaj’s single “Anaconda” was released just two months ago, it caused controversy. The controversy was partly due to its harmful lyrics when Minaj makes a disparaging remark about “skinny b*****s.”

Meghan Trainor’s debut single “All About That Bass” which contained a similar lyric, faced scriticism as well.Trainor’s reasoning is that she was trying get the message across that she understands the struggle that skinny girls have as well but other people seem to think the line is insensitive toward skinny individuals.

While Minaj and Trainor were trying to promote body confidence in people, especially young women, it could have done without because a lot of people don’t have control over their weight and appearance. Even if the song was not dedicated to thin people, body positive songs should remain positive.

It is argued that skinny-shaming is not the same as fat-shaming because society often gives skinnier people “thin privilege” and that skinny-shaming is essentially just reverse discrimination.

There are shreds of truth in this. In the media skinny-shaming rarely occurs unless the person is extremely skinny or anorexic, while if a celebrity is even slightest bit overweight, they are marginalized and often made fun of.

We should think before we make remarks about someone’s weight.