Believe it or not, those who are labeled as “thin” are just as insecure about their bodies as those who are “thick” or “overweight.” Thin women are just as pressured to look like the only image of thin that is accepted by society: large breasts, small waists, and large backsides.
Women who are thin do not always look like the Jessica Rabbits that are often glorified and awarded in popular media. There are women that are thin who have very small proportions; small proportions that are often viewed as unattractive and childish instead of being perceived as belonging to grown women.
I am one of these women. Even though I have never received the level of shaming that other women receive for being curvy or going over the idealized body weight, it is still shaming of one’s body nonetheless.
Image source: Jairo Alzate
Growing up, I’ve had random strangers exaggerate their mortification over the knowledge that they are able to enclose their thumb and index fingers around my entire wrist, wiggling my wrist around as if their discovery was something that was unheard of. I have no control over how my body controls the distribution of weight. I may have thinner arms but I have thicker thighs.
My roommate during freshman year did this very same thing. She casually grabbed my wrist and was shocked to find out that she could enclose her thumb and index finger around it. She even called her friends that lived near to look at what she was able to do with her hand.
This, of course, further intensified the insecurities I already had about my body shape, making me wish I could gain more weight. I ended up overeating more than what I was able to handle and spent most nights throwing up the food I ate in the girls’ restroom for a week.
I also hated my body shape. I hated how I was so thin that I couldn’t fill my blouses, shirts, jeans, or dresses the way that glorified thinness in the media was able to do with clothing. Therefore I opted to buy and wear larger and looser clothing instead. I often find myself preferring to wear sweatshirts due to the spacious availability which often gives the allusion that I’m not as thin as I actually am.
Image source: Alina Miroshnichenko
There’s also the hypocrisy of the media by encouraging a hate campaign against women who are thin, often excusing their language against thin women to spread awareness of body “positivity.” How is calling a woman with a thinner frame a “skinny b*tch”, like Nicki Minaj did in her song “Anaconda”, and preaching the phrase “f*ck skinny b*tches” in her rap an encouragement to love oneself? Furthermore, what was shocking is that there was little backlash over the line. Thin women have no control over their thinness.
Not every woman who is thin is the idealized portrayal of what the media thinks a thin woman looks like. Thin women do feel insecure for not being able to live up to idealized body types, and thin women are shamed. Thin women come in a variety of body shapes.
Most important, women with thinner and smaller frames cannot control their body shapes and should not be shamed for being naturally thin, the same way women who are thicker should not be shamed for naturally having curves. It is possible to promote body positivity without putting down other body types.
Cover image source: Unsplash