I am a thin woman. I have been this way my entire life. In fact, I still don't weigh enough to donate blood. This past week during the Carolina-Clemson Blood Drive, I was embarrassed to admit to friends the reason why I couldn't go give blood with them. And then it hit me: In this time of ever-growing women’s empowerment movements and body acceptance messages, it is still hard to find a positive message about being thin.
I'm sure plenty of people are rolling their eyes over a thin woman complaining about insecurity because of her weight. Most supermodels make thin seem like the ultimate body type and, as a result, girls can suffer from eating disorders in order to achieve this look. As a result of this, naturally skinny girls can often be accused of “starving themselves” to keep their weight down when it is simply their natural body shape. I can not count how many times I've been asked “Do you even eat?” or “How did you finish that?” I've been told I need to work out, beef up and strengthen my “chicken legs.”
The media has turned its attention on women’s body issues recently and has begun to champion women who suffer from eating disorders. While this is good, it is easy for naturally thin women to feel left by the wayside. When I heard pop singer Meghan Trainor’s song “All About That Bass” for the first time, I was deeply offended. In it, she tells young women that she “won't be no stick figure, silicone Barbie doll” and that she's “bring booty back, go ahead and tell them skinny b------.”
This message of women needing to have more weight to them because “boys like a little more booty to hold at night” is an entirely inappropriate message to both larger and smaller women. Not only is it conveying the message that a woman's shape is solely for a man's enjoyment, but it is telling thin women that they are sticks, fake and undesirable. I applaud our culture for embracing fuller, curvier women's body types but it should not be at the expense of thin women's self-esteem.
We need to realize that all body types are beautiful. All can be promoted without shaming another. There needs to be an equal focus on all different variations of body image issues, because thin women can suffer just as much from these issues. But, most of all, just because I'm thin does not make it okay for you to ask me when the last time I ate was, comment on the size of my legs or make jokes about anorexia. We can all agree it would be a severe social breach of conduct to ask a larger woman any of these questions, so let's treat thin women with the same respect.