I fall somewhere in there; perhaps a mix of all three.
I suppose that it would largely depend on who you are as to which camp you would fall into. Perhaps you are a person that really does prefer a woman on the very thin side. Maybe you're one who craves a little more meat on a woman.
What I'd like to address mostly is a comment which I've seen people post when they see this picture:
REAL women have curves!
Do they? Is there a rule book somewhere that dictates that the only way you can be considered a "real" woman is to have curves? I've not seen one, and I challenge anyone to show me such a thing. And if there is, what constitutes curves? Again, you have to rely pretty heavily on public opinion as to what curves are considered "proper" curves to make up the aforementioned "real" woman.
I used to be one of those people saying "Real women have curves". Every time someone skinny looked my way and commented, rudely or otherwise, I would bring out the old catchphrase as if it were a shield that could protect me against the world.
I used to be quite comfortable in saying "Men don't want stick insects that are going to break, they want something with a bit of meat on their bones".
I used to be......ignorant.
Plain and simple ignorance.
Every time you say "a REAL woman has curves", you are implying that those women who don't, aren't. Every time you utter that one simple phrase, you are doing exactly the same thing to those women that many have done to you when they comment on your weight.
One of the guys who originally shared that picture, and whose name still shows under it with each share, is a father. When he posted it, he added the comment:
I would hate for my daughter to grow up thinking she is supposed to look like a stick
figure.
I can understand that, I don't want my daughter to grow up thinking she HAS to be SKINNY either. Society places a certain pressure on women to be a certain size, that isn't necessarily appropriate for every woman's body type. But that's a post for another time.
When I re-posted that picture, I did so with the disclaimer that I was NOT talking about women who are genetically predisposed to being very thin. I have a couple of friends who fit into that category and yes, they are very thin and next to me look like waifs, but NO they are not anorexic/bulimic, NO they do not need to "go eat a burger", NO they are not starving themselves. Actually a couple of them can out eat me!
When I re-posted that picture with my agreement that "this is more attractive than this", I was referring to those women that you see on many of the fashion runways and magazines nowadays. The women with bones jutting out everywhere and sunken faces.
There is a difference between the two. There is a vast difference between the way your body is meant to be and the way that some women starve and overwork themselves to MAKE their bodies appear.
**Don't get me wrong, I realize that anorexia & bulimia are horrible diseases and CLEARLY I have never suffered from either. I wish that women didn't feel the pressures that they do to look a certain way that pushed them to those points. **
Real women.
What are they?
Are real women curvy? Are real women straight up and down with boyish figures? Are real women very thin or very muscly?
Real women? They're just women. All body types, all shapes and sizes and colours and ethnicities.
Real women are everywhere.
Re-define REAL.
Change the way your mind works, change the things you say. Telling a thin woman that "real women have curves" or that she needs to "go eat a burger" are just as hurtful as telling an overweight woman that she's "gross" or needs to "staple that stomach".
We'll talk about re-defining sexy another time, but for now...go hug a REAL woman. Find the closest woman and give her a hug because no matter what she looks like, she's real.
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