Why Does Size Matter?

2014 was declared the year of the booty. You probably knew that, right? To me it didn't feel like that though. To me, 2014 was the year of the body shame. There was so much in the media about how the booty is back and that skinny isn't the best thing to be. But why does there have to be a best body type? Why can't every body size be equally beautiful? For some reason many members of our society feels like something has to be better than something else. Everybody's size is going to get hate no matter what so promoting one body size while forgetting the other isn't helping. We might as well have called it 2014 the year skinny girls feel bad. Also my dear media when will bigger girls feel like they are equally as beautiful as the other skinny girls when they read a magazine or watch a TV show? Why is there so many of one body type -skinny- on the cover of magazines and in advertisements? There is always more praise for one body type which leaves girls on the other side feeling unconfident. All of this leads to people harming themselves by dieting, comfort eating, taking skinny pills and feeling ugly.In the end it all comes full circle. When you're skinny you want to be thicker and when you're thicker you want to be skinnier. It's also sad I feel I can write skinny but not fat. Why are there so many double standards confusing people?

There are those who say every body type is perfect but lets take it back to 2014 where Victoria's Secret released a bra range called 'The Body.' They advertised it saying "The Perfect Body." The tagline reading 'Perfect Fit, Perfect Comfort, Perfectly Soft.' 

The picture above caused a lot of controversy because people felt like they were being told that this was the perfect body for reasons I do not know. A bunch of skinny models were thought of as being called 'perfect bodied,' and for some reason this didn't agree with people because how dare the perfect body be skinny. Right. In my opinion people were just turning a pebble into a mountain because it's obvious when they said 'The Perfect Body' they meant the bra.

1. The word 'body' is in quotation marks indicating that they meant the bra

2. The tagline obviously informs us that it is the bra they were talking about.

This advertisement led to people making things like this:

What confuses me is how some of these people have written the same message upon their pictures yet are praised. Isn't this contradicting yourself? Yeah, it's great you are showing differentiated body sizes but why would it have been so wrong for the eight Victoria's Secret models to have been labelled as perfect bodied. Is it because they're skinny, or their bodies have been touched up? How is it okay for you to put up a picture of yourself and call it the perfect body when other people do it and you are annoyed. You say all body types are perfect but apparently not. If all body sizes were perfect then Photoshopped and skinny bodies should be included in that also. Or can we agree we don't actually know the meaning?

Hit songs of 2014 include 'All About That Bass' by Megan Trainor, 'Anaconda' by Nicki Minaj, 'Wiggle' by Jason Derulo. All national anthems of body shaming. 

Trainor starts with a positive message saying 'every inch of you is perfect from your bottom to your top.' But it takes a nasty turn as she conflicts her own decisions saying 'I won't be no stick figure silicone barbie doll' and 'I'm bringing booty back go ahead and tell them skinny b****es that.' That's a nice message to include in a song that is supposed to empower people. Using a term that is used to bully skinny people. The worst thing is that mostly kids listen to this music and from a young age kids begin to feel unconfident.

Minaj also in her song uses metaphorical language singing 'My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns, hun. She also says F*** them skinny b****es. Why she thinks that's okay, i don't know. Celebrities need to realise they are a little more influential than the average person and what they say and do is important. The only thing this is doing is making sure that someone finishes the song feeling bad about themselves.This shouldn't be played on the radio. Especially seeing as there are no songs promoting how being skinny is a good thing.

Celebrities like Selena Gomez, Tyra Banks and Adele have been subjected to hate because of their body sizes being thought of as too big. It's not fair people have to feel self concious in bikinis or any other clothing because of staring eyes and judgy people. People should not have to worry about being scrutinized because of their size when they are supposed to be happy. 

This is also done when it comes to TV shows or movies like in Norbit or Disney Channels Jessie and A.N.T. Farm. All these shows and movies think it's hilarious that somebody is overweight. This isn't okay and it just spreads the idea making fun of overweight people is okay when it isn't. It's not a joke and it's hurtful to be made fun of.

I'm going to finish this off by saying I know the world won't change in a whole day and that life isn't going to ever be without insecurities. But lets not have the year of the thigh gap or the year of the booty. Let's have 2015 be the year of being alive.

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