Catchy Tune

If you're interested in body issues and think that it's okay to be plus sized and still be considered pretty, smart, ambitious...HUMAN, you've probably heard Meghan Trainor's song "All About That Bass" making it's rounds. If not, here you go.

Truth be told, I love it. It's catchy as hell, love the visuals and love the message that you don't have to be a size 2 to be considered desirable. There is a little part in the lyrics I have a problem with:

"I'm bringing booty back
Go ahead and tell them skinny bitches that
No I'm just playing I know you think you're fat
But I'm here to tell ya
Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top"

I get the jist of it that everyone regardless of size has been told in some way or another that something is wrong with them, I am just really uncomfortable with the whole separation of fat and skinny in the first place. A lot of plus sized campaigns seem to rely on sorting out women as well. "Real women have curves" we've all heard it. Dove has made a mint off their "Real beauty" campaign which somewhat exploits the whole real women have some curves...mind you the same company sells Slim Fast and products for skin whitening...So maybe only so many curves and you have to be light skinned to be a "real woman".

notice how none of the "real women" are really all that thin

While there no doubt is a heavy heavy bias against women who are size 14+ in the media and girls (and boys) are fed images of the ideal body from a very young age, we needn't willingly separate ourselves from other women. A backlash against this notion needs "hey, plus sized people ROCK!" not negativity such as "real women have curves". Because as we all know, there are plenty of women who fit into a size 2 and they're pretty real. They may diet and work out like crazy to get there, or they just might be naturally skinny. If you can talk with them, smell them, poke them with your finger, THEY'RE REAL! Not all of them have an eating disorder, just like not all of us plus sized folks stuff cheeseburgers into our mouths.

So, I do think its important to highlight that there is an uneven scale as to what constitutes beauty and strength and fitness and smarts, I think we can do it without even jokingly referring to other women as other. It ends up saying that we're insecure and hateful and really I'm not. I love my body, I tune out whenever the discussion turns to weight loss with my friends, only to interject every now and then randomly "You're beautiful!!!!" which my friends think is weird, but so be it. I don't hate other women because of their bodies, I don't compare myself to other women and I don't think anyone else should despite what the media tells us.

Fact is, that we're all in this together. Fat women are told that they are unattractive, skinny women are told that they are unattractive. Black women need lighter skin, white women need to not be so pasty. Asian women need bigger eyes and curly hair women need to straighten their locks. Really with all those mixed messages, who the hell knows what the media wants us to look like anymore. The only thing that is wrong is the message that is trying to be sold to us and for that, one group can't afford to make enemies of any other group, we stand fat, skinny, short, tall, black, white, curly, straight whatever we look like together.