So, the other day a story did it's rounds on social media on unairbrushed photos of Kim K on holiday, and the internet went into a frenzy. It was apparent that Kim did have some cellulite and had just well, a very normal looking body... refreshingly normal in fact. She seemed to receive so much hate and negativity from these photographs, it literally took me 5 seconds to find the above examples of people being so nasty about a woman they have never even met. A woman who has feelings just like any of us. I can't imagine how it must feel to turn on your phone for it to be filled with hate messages telling you how gross you look. The woman has given birth to two children and is a normal human just like all of us, she has feelings too, no one deserves this kind of treatment.
Perhaps if it was bought a little closer to home people would understand more, how would you feel if someone was saying those comments about your mum or your sister? It would be awful, so just because its someone you don't know, it does not make it okay.
Body shaming is never ever acceptable and something needs to change in this society because it happens way too much. You see articles daily about celebrities apparently looking bad or needing to lose weight or gain weight; what kind of example does this set to young people?! Nobody is perfect, but nobody needs to be perfect. We are human. We are all unique. Magazines and social media set these ridiculously high expectations for both women and men. What the perfect lips are, the perfect dress size, the perfect legs, the perfect biceps the list goes on. But many photos we see on campaigns and magazine interviews are airbrushed or edited or use a lot of makeup. They aren't a true representation of that person.
Whatever shape or size you are, you are beautiful, you are you.
If we all looked exactly the same, the world would be a very boring place, almost everyone wants to change something about their appearance and its said a lot, but it's so hard not to compare yourself to photos on social media because, as I said earlier, comparing your everyday to someone else's highlight reel is silly. They probably also have days where they wake up feeling and looking so rough, but they just don't post those days on social media. No one puts up their 'just woken up, I have sleepy dust in my eyes and a puffy face' look to instagram, so don't compare yours to someones 'going out look'! Those photos of Kim K were a reminder that she is a normal woman just like all of us, she has her imperfections, she has cellulite just like everybody. It is a normal thing. It isn't something we should be scared or embarrassed by.
But I also was recently thinking, that we are our own harshest critic. I get that we can all be judgemental but I always see good things about someone else's body or appearance that I would never pick up about myself. I tend to wish I had something that they do, that I looked like them or that I could have a talent like them. I see them for them, but I don't really see myself like that. I sit and judge, slate and moan about tiny parts of me all the time, but I would never even notice these things on someone else. So why should you say them about yourself?
There are so many examples of completely stupid things that I will pick up about myself when looking in a mirror, things that I doubt anyone else has ever picked up, but to me they could make me look gross, and I don't think constantly being exposed to body shaming of people looking 'normal' helps at all.
How are women supposed to feel comfortable in their own skin when society seems to have all of these ridiculous expectations. Why can't we just celebrate each other for what we do have and for how beautiful we all are and how different we all are from each other.
Celebrate our natural beauty, don't bring each other down all the time.
