We had an interesting response on one of our IG posts this morning. Someone understood why taking pictures of someone without consent was wrong, but saw no issue with body shaming. While we respect that people differ in opinion, we would be remiss if we did not address this idea.
Dani Mathers took a photo of a woman in a gym. The woman was naked in the changing room, after presumably working out for her health, and Dani took a photo of her without consent. The humiliation did not stop there. Dani captioned the photo, “If I can’t unsee this then you can’t either.” She attached another photo of herself covering her mouth to depict a look of shock, horror, sickness, or a combination of the three.
That is problematic. It isn’t just the legality of taking a nude photo of someone without their permission. It isn’t even just about whether or not she shared that photo with one friend or her entire story. It is about how that woman was made to feel – she was literally being shamed for who she is as a person.
Woodchip 2.0, we find that appalling. Sure, pretty much everyone has said something horrible about another person’s body at some point in their life. Whether it is a 15-year-old girl calling another friend fat, a grown woman stating that a man is not attractive because he’s too short, or men who claim they would never have sex with a specific person because she has flab on her stomach. That’s all body shaming. We’ve all done it. But that doesn’t mean that we have to continue to do it.
Children as young as 5 years old are starting to be concerned with how their bodies look. These kids are supposed to be worried about not eating Play-Doh, but healthy kids are focused on whether or not they are too fat. That is beyond frightening.
These same children often grow up to be the young women and men who are the bullies or the bullied. Individuals who cut because they are depressed about not looking like their celebrity idols on the covers of photoshopped magazines. Young women who starve themselves or purge after every meal in an attempt to fit some standard that may be physically unattainable for them. We feed into that horrible cycle every time we openly say something shameful about someone else’s body. Just because people do it does not mean that it’s okay.
Calling people out for body shaming matters because if we don’t, we continue to co-sign on a society where we are raising people to judge individuals on the basis of how they look, rather than what they do.
And Woodchip 2.0, don’t tell me that I do it, because I don’t. I have done it. I have even done it to my own body. But I don’t anymore. I have made the conscious decision to view myself and others in a more positive light, keep my negative opinions to myself, and recognize that the self-worth of others does not hang on my opinion of them.
That doesn’t make me or any other body-positive person hypocritical, it makes us human. Human beings who are striving to treat others around us with more respect than we previously did. Individuals who are trying to better, not bitter. If you are not constantly evolving as a person, what’s the point?
Rioters, he missed the meaning of the Riot. I cannot blame him. People miss the point of body-positivity all the time. A lot of that is due to us being entrenched in a society that puts an incredible amount of worth on fitting in to some ideal that a small group of people decided was beautiful. But that’s not an excuse for letting that continue. So, let me be clear. We are body-positive because it matters.
The way that young women feel about their bodies matters. No one should be shamed because of the way that they look. Unless someone asks you, keep your negative opinion to yourself. These are simple concepts that society doesn’t seem to get. We’re looking forward to the day that they do.
Until then, we’ll keep calling out body-shaming. We will keep portraying women as the diverse group of beautiful humans that they are. And if you don’t like it? You can find somewhere else to continue to be a part of the problem. We just want solutions.
Big ups to the haters.
