Welcome back to The Self Love Series on The Influencer Blog. We are so excited to have a takeover this week, with the amazing Katie Fitch (@_katiejordanfitch on Instagram) discussing all things skinny shaming during the body positivity movement.
Hi everyone! My name is Katie, I am 20 years old and do Early Childhood Studies at University. I would just like to say a massive thankyou to Beth and Lizzie for publishing this blog as it means a huge amount to me. Hopefully, some of you reading this will be able to relate or educate yourself around the topic of body positivity and skinny shaming. I am passionate about raising awareness regarding mental health and body positivity. I strongly believe that everyone deserves self-love - no matter their shape, size or figure. Mental health for me has always been a challenge in my life, whether it be from friends or family members, social media or even my own brain being negative, causing a downward spiral regarding my self-confidence and body image.
Deciding to write this post was a huge step for me in terms of recognising mental health and the challenges that I, as well as others, face every day. The body positivity movement is continuously growing everyday but there is still more that it could focus on in order to stop body shaming once and for all. Everyone should feel confident and comfortable in their own skin regardless of what other people say or think. Being comfortable with your body contributes to a better mental health and overall positive outlook on life and in society. It takes so much for someone to feel comfortable in their own body. Skinny and body shaming can prevent this from happening and impact someone’s mental health negatively. As Ru Paul says “If you cannot love yourself how the hell are you going to love somebody else” and loving yourself is a major part of self -love and having a positive mental outlook on life.
Skinny shaming is for sure overlooked in the body positivity movement, which leads to people thinking it’s okay to negatively comment on a skinny person’s size or figure just because they are not the same size. Some common phrases include “you look anorexic”, “you need to eat more”, “you’re too thin”, “you’re unhealthy”. But in reality, there is no such thing as perfect and why should other people and accounts determine whether you feel good about yourself? As long as someone is healthy and happy then their body size or figure shouldn’t be commented on nor judged. You wouldn’t comment on a larger person’s picture saying “you need to lose weight” or “you’re fat” so why is it different when it comes to skinny people and skinny shaming?
When researching this topic, I was shocked to see so little about body positivity for skinny people and saw articles stating that body positivity is not for those who have already been acknowledged in society. But yet, in reality, skinny shaming still exists which suggests that skinny people are not accepted. So why do they not have a right to feel positive about their bodies? Phrases such as “real women have curves” were very common and immediately draws shame towards skinnier people making them feel inferior and not as worthy of love or acceptance.
Social media plays a large role in body shaming for skinny people causing their confidence to drop and for them to start to question their body image. Going through Instagram and bloggers I found lots of body positivity accounts but not one focused on skinnier people, which I find bizarre and quite upsetting. Body positivity should be inclusive and include those of all shapes and sizes so why does it discriminate against smaller people? I feel like there is certainly a lack of bloggers or influencers hence discussing the topic around skinny shaming as the majority of body positivity accounts and blogs focus on mid and plus sized people which excludes skinner people. I am not in any way taking away the importance of body shaming for larger people but simply advocating the whole idea of ‘body shaming’ by recognising EVERYONE and saying that it is NOT okay to comment on someone’s body image or figure because it can really affect their self-confidence. I think more people should be educated about skinny shaming and the impact it can have on someone’s mental health. I hope this inspires people to think before they comment negatively about someone’s look or figure. Social media should support the body positivity movement as a whole and be inclusive.
Some people do not choose to be skinny, for example I have battled years with intolerances and mis- diagnosis which has caused putting weight on for me to be a struggle. In some people’s eyes that might be a good thing as they want to lose weight but for me it is a negative thing, made worse by skinny shaming and negative connotations surrounded by being a smaller size. Skinny shaming impacted my overall confidence massively that I found myself withdrawing from society and wanting to be larger and wear larger clothes just so I didn’t feel like an outsider. Growing up surrounded by skinny shaming at school, social media and family simply because they didn’t understand the detrimental impact it could have on my self-confidence and image. People thinking it is okay to comment on my weight and say “eat more”, “you’re so bony” or “you’re going to end up with an eating disorder” unfortunately led to me developing a negative self-image of myself as I started to think deeply about what people were saying and question my body size and figure. Body shaming as a whole can have a huge impact on mental health and I believe skinny shaming is one of the main causes of my anxiety and depression, and I am sure other people can relate to this too. I didn’t choose to be skinny and I feel like some people jump to conclusions before knowing the facts by pre judging someone based on their size which is wrong and can lead to hurtful body shaming.
As I am much older now, I would like to say that skinny shaming doesn’t impact me as much but that would be a lie, especially as it is advocated almost on Instagram by people thinking it is okay to comment on someone’s size or figure without knowing the impact it will have upon their self-image and mental health. I myself am going to write more captions and focus my pictures on stopping skinny shaming in hope that some of you reading this will also do the same and we can support body positivity inclusively together. The body positivity movement needs to be inclusive and stop people feeling better about themselves through the expense of others.
Body shaming as a whole should STOP.
If there is anything you take from this blog post it should be this:
You are all beautiful no matter your size or figure, love yourself as well as one another and treat yourself how you would want to be treated. Lets make this world a happy inclusive place!
Thank you for reading,
Katie xx
Thank you so much to Katie for writing this post for us, if you want to be involved be sure to check out our Instagram here.
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