The body positivity movement in today’s pop culture is all about curves, booty and being what is often referred to as “a real woman.” Songs like Meghan Trainor’s ‘All About That Bass’ tout lyrics such as “boys like a little more booty to hold at night,” and many fuller figured woman may proudly say popular phrases such as “Bones are for the dog, meat is for the man.” Other popular songs such as Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” get progressively more offensive as the song goes on, starting out with a male voice proclaiming that “My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns hun,” and going on to have Minaj rap lyrics such as

“He don’t like ‘em bony he want something he can grab,” and closes with her repeating the phrase “F*** those skinny b****es.” This body positivity movement is only positive toward more fuller figured body types, and may leave women with naturally flatter figures by the wayside.

“They’re calling large women ‘real women’ when a woman of any shape is a real woman. It doesn’t matter what your shape is,” senior Hannah Ulrich said.

Every movement in popular culture has a backlash, but it is an interesting phenomena that skinny shaming goes so largely unnoticed while if the situation was reversed, like if Minaj’s song had glorified thinness and shamed fuller figures, there would be widespread outrage.

“As a society we like to jump on bandwagons and not really see other individual’s perspectives. We like to make ourselves feel good about ourselves and where we are. And the only way to do that is to put other people in a hierarchy. I’m not saying that’s right by any means, but I think that’s how that manifests or comes about. I think in all aspects, not just when it comes to weight, tolerance is an interesting thing. Because I see that sometimes when people who preach tolerance for whatever the issue may be, may also tend to be intolerant and outspoken when it comes to topics. It’s an interesting paradox as to why that happens,” sociology teacher Samantha Kaysinger said.

As a society we are taught that making comments about someone who is overweight is wrong, but many thinner girls feel that their peers feel entitled to comment on their weight since they are on the opposite end of the spectrum.

“Of course always growing up in a co-ed school I’ve always had guys be like ‘Oh you’re too skinny,’ or ‘you’re a string bean, and guys don’t like that.’ I’ve never personally asked a guy if I’m too skinny, or if they like my butt or my boobs. I’ve never asked them but they feel the need to give me their opinion as if I care, and I don’t,” Senior Avery Farrar said.

This constant stream of comments drives some to unhealthy measures to try to conform to society’s standard of what they should look like.

“For years I have had people tell me ‘Oh, you need to eat some burgers and get some meat on your bones!’ And that is so aggravating. When anyone tells me that it stresses me out so much. I literally eat twice as much food as I probably even should, plus I stash away a ton of snacks in my backpack every day so I actually eat a lot, but I can not gain weight whatsoever. On both sides of my family, you are skinny when you are young because of how high our metabolism is. It just runs in our genes and I can’t control that but people think it is so easy for someone to just gain weight and it really isn’t,” Senior Sarah E Jones said.
Jones is not unique in feeling this pressure, and a lot of it may stem from feeling unwanted by the opposite gender.

“It made me feel like I had to gain some weight. Also it made me feel like nobody liked me. I remember this one time this boy told me that he thought I was really pretty and he would probably like me but my boobs weren’t big enough,” Ulrich said.

As America becomes a steadily larger nation, naturally thinner people begin to stand out more and more. While they may be at their natural weight as a result of a higher metabolism, their weight may seem unnatural to their peers and many naturally thin people find themselves under another type of scrutiny.

“I grew 7 inches in a matter of 4 months in middle school and I just had the worst time with it. There were teachers and students who had me on an eating disorder watch, and there were like rumors within the community, and people who would talk about that around my mom. It wasn’t even children but grown women, who would see me as a thin 11 year old and think that I already had an eating disorder when it couldn’t have just been my growth spurt. Or anytime when I would just want to eat a salad as opposed to like a hamburger at lunch, it would immediately allude that I’m on a diet or I have an eating disorder, as opposed to that I just don’t want to eat this processed meat. I can’t eat healthy without any speculation,” Farrar said.
As previously mentioned, many try to gain self esteem by putting themselves above others in a hierarchy and this results in people on both ends of the body type spectrum putting each other down. However since in the super thin body type of the nineties was the previous standard, some may assume that thin people are immune to the negative comments even though we are now living in a new era with new standards of beauty.

“As women with curves are becoming, in media, more desirable I think it makes skinny girls feel like no one’s going to want them for their body, which, although you shouldn’t be wanted just for your body, it hurts. People think that small girls aren’t worth as much as big girls because they don’t have a big butt or big boobs but I think it’s really hurtful and we need to embrace people of all body types. A body is a body,” Ulrich said.

“Of course always growing up in a co-ed school I’ve always had guys be like ‘Oh you’re too skinny,’ or ‘you’re a string bean, and guys don’t like that.’ I’ve never personally asked a guy if I’m too skinny, or if they like my butt or my boobs. I’ve never asked them but they feel the need to give me their opinion as if I care and I don’t,” senior Avery Farrar said.

This constant stream of comments drives some to unhealthy measures in order to try to conform to society’s standard of what they should look like.

“For years I have had people tell me ‘Oh, you need to eat some burgers and get some meat on your bones!’ And that is so aggravating. When anyone tells me that it stresses me out so much. I literally eat twice as much food as I probably even should, plus I stash away a ton of snacks in my backpack every day so I actually eat a lot, but I cannot gain weight whatsoever. On both sides of my family you are skinny when you are young because of how high our metabolism is. It just runs in our genes and I can’t control that, but people think it is so easy for someone to just gain weight and it really isn’t,” senior Sarah E. Jones said.
Jones is not unique in feeling this pressure, a lot of which may stem from feeling unwanted by the opposite gender.

“It made me feel like I had to gain some weight. I remember this one time this boy told me that he thought I was really pretty and he would probably like me but my boobs weren’t big enough,” Ulrich said.

The “skinny shaming” that Jones experienced was so severe it caused her to become very depressed.

“I felt so bad about how skinny I was that I was ashamed to be in my own body, and you should never ever feel that way about yourself. Some days it would make me extremely depressed to where even though I wanted to eat, I was just so sick that I couldn’t do it. I would lose my appetite because of how depressed I was and that would make me lose even more weight. Just small things that people say about your weight can affect you so much, and I don’t think anyone takes the time to realize that what they say, no matter how meaningless it may be, can truly hurt you,” Jones said.

As America becomes a steadily larger nation, naturally thinner people begin to stand out more and more. While they may be at their natural weight as a result of a higher metabolism, their weight may seem unnatural to their peers and many naturally thin people find themselves under another type of scrutiny.

“I grew seven inches in a matter of four months in middle school and I just had the worst time with it. There were teachers and students who had me on an eating disorder watch, and there were like rumors within the community, and people who would talk about that around my mom. It wasn’t even children but grown women, who would see me as a thin 11 year old and think that I already had an eating disorder when it couldn’t have just been my growth spurt. Or anytime when I would just want to eat a salad as opposed to like, a hamburger, at lunch it would immediately allude that I’m on a diet, or I have an eating disorder, as opposed to that I just don’t want to eat this processed meat. I can’t eat healthy without any speculation,” Farrar said.

As previously mentioned, many try to gain self esteem by putting themselves above others in a hierarchy and this results in people on both ends of the body type spectrum putting each other down. However since the super thin body type of the nineties was the previous standard, some may assume that thin people are immune to the negative comments even though we are now living in a new era with new standards of beauty.

“As women with curves are becoming, in media, more desirable I think it makes skinny girls feel like no one’s going to want them for their body, which although you shouldn’t be wanted just for your body, it hurts. People think that small girls aren’t worth as much as big girls because they don’t have a big butt or big boobs but I think it’s really hurtful and we need to embrace people of all body types. A body is a body,” Ulrich said.