I'm Showing My "Fat" Belly To The World To Make An Important Point
Raise your hand if you're sick of this nonsense.
andriano.cz / Shutterstock Body shaming goes both ways. Trust me. I’ve been the “skinny” girl my whole life. Being the scrawny kid, you’re made to feel ashamed that you’re “skin and bones.” You’re told that you’re “lucky” or “must be nice” for something that is actually out of your control.
Having people tell you to “eat a sandwich” or calling you “Skinny Minnie” all the time is just as damaging to a young person’s self-esteem as being fat-shamed.
It took me until well into my 20s to understand how all of those comments from my family members and friends affected me and my body image while growing up. And once I realized it, it started to piss me off.
Who are these people to point their fingers and make me feel guilty for being thin? I struggle daily just to maintain a healthy weight. I have my entire life.
Just as people who struggle with being overweight their whole life, the last thing people like me need to hear is someone else’s assumption or opinion about our body type.
I’ve made a point to really speak out about this over the past few years.
Body shaming goes both ways, but no one wants to talk about that. People don’t have sympathy for the “skinny chick.” It’s okay to tell her that her body should look another way because she’s thin, but it’s not okay to say that to someone who is overweight.
Just to be clear, I’m not asking for any sympathy. That is NOT my point here. My point is that there should be NO body shaming at all. No matter what the circumstance may be for an individual, who are you to judge or say she needs to look a different way?
In a world full of negativity and shaming I’m issuing a demand for change.
Is that really how low we all are?
Are we not better than that by now?
Even today, people don’t realize the difference between live, unedited images and images that have been “perfected” with photoshop and other editing techniques.
So I stood in my office and recorded this video for Facebook to give proof that sometimes pants just make our stomachs look a little different.
That does NOT make you fat. That does not make you not good enough, not skinny enough, or not fit enough.
It makes you human.
Real women do not have flat stomachs all the time, or even most of the time. They just don’t. And if recording this video can reach even one young girl who was having doubts about her self-image, then my mission has been accomplished.
Be the change you wish to see in this world. It starts with you.
Jamie Thurber is a Productivity Expert and Business Coach. You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published in February 2017.