Love your body!

Hello there!

So this topic is something I feel very strongly about and I've been wanting to talk about it on my YouTube channel for ages. However, due to recent events I can't make sit-down videos (only vlogs with my iPhone) so I'm going to blog instead - which will hopefully make it less of a rant and more concise (so there are upsides to me not being able to make videos: I tend to ramble, haha).

About 6 months ago I was in a car with some friends (two female, two male I think) and two girls were walking along the pavement and my male friends thought that I was just going to sit back and let them comment on the size of one of these girls. OH HELL NO. I can't quote exactly what one of them said... lets call him Tim. Tim basically said that one of these girls was "too fat". I took one look at this girl and said "she looks about the same size as me." That shut him up. I can't stand people who think it's okay to say stuff like that. This girl was about a size 12 and quite curvy, but fairly petite in the scheme of things. Now, I don't want this to turn into a rant about sexism etc. otherwise this post could get very long, but I think that the views of the media are not only having an effect on the way that women and young girls view their bodies, but it's also effecting the way that men view us and how some men think it's acceptable to make comments like Tim. Anyway, that's another post entirely.

I read a statistic that the biggest worry of roughly 60% of 10 year old girls are their bodies and appearance (don't quote me on that, but all I know is that it was a big figure). This is so wrong. Children are highly influenced by their parents and everything else around them, and with all the media coverage of "so-and-so's gone from a size 8 to 12, ewww how disgusting!" no wonder young girls are being influenced so much.

The media frustrates me a lot, aside from the majority of the stuff people read in Heat magazines etc. being total lies there is so much emphasis on body image, these magazines are sending out all the wrong messages and we're totally buying into it. I don't read those magazines because they're full of negativity and (in my opinion) are a waste of money. 

Nearly two years ago, in an all-female textiles class at school, some of the girls were talking about how a size 12 was "really fat" and how they wished they "were a size 8" - I'm talking in UK sizes here guys (size 12UK = 8US), just so you know. WHY CAN'T WE JUST BE HAPPY WITH OUR BODIES?!

This image negativity has crept up on us and is becoming a major issue of the 21st century - but I'm not saying it never existed during earlier times. For example, if you look at early centuries, body size determined a person's wealth and status. 

But if you think about it, there are so many ways in which we are influenced subconsciously about what the "right size" is. For example, I often zoom in on the clothing sizes on websites and they nearly always photograph the smallest size and celebrities and models are often photo-shopped to look slimmer, more tanned and younger.  

I used to care so much about what size I was - if I fitted into a size 8 skirt I'd be really happy, but if I had to go a size up in something then that would ruin my shopping day entirely. My size varies from shop to shop and it depends on the style as well. Nowadays, I think that if a dress or a pair of jeans or anything looks good on me, no matter what size it is, I'll buy it. I think that as long as you're eating healthily and are happy with your body, that's the most important thing. Body shaming is inducing negativity between women when we should be sticking together. I know girls who, no matter how much they eat, cannot put on weight and I know people who gain weight really easily. We shouldn't be shaming each other just because someone's a size 6 and someone else is a size 26. Skinny girls aren't better than bigger girls and bigger girls aren't better than skinny girls.

I watched a video by sxephil on YouTube and he was talking about how a woman got mad at him because he fancied Nina Dobrev, who is considered to be fairly skinny. That's just how she is! He also went on to say that he equally liked curvier girls - there's nothing wrong with either. What I'm trying to say is that I don't like the fact that fashion is more orientated towards skinny girls (lets face it, it's true: models being size 4 and below) but the curvier girls shouldn't hate on the skinnier girls - we should hate on the fashion industry and the media who promote that fashion and style is only for smaller women.

Love your body no matter what size you are. I cannot emphasise enough that size is not important. Don't let the media, celebrities or anyone else tell you what the "right size" is - because there isn't one.

That concludes the end of this blog post, have a great day, leave a comment below and here are some links to other blogs, newspaper articles and the Abercrombie & Fitch scandal if you haven't heard about it:

http://www.ayearwithoutmirrors.com/2012/08/whats-up-with-all-of-recent-size-8.html
http://www.westminstercollege.edu/myriad/index.cfm?parent=2514&detail=4475&content=4795
http://jkthompson.myweb.usf.edu/articles/The%20Media's%20Influence%20on%20Body%20Image%20Disturbance.pdf
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media-network/media-network-blog/2013/may/16/abercrombie-fitch-marketing-mike-jeffries