Body image and reverse discrimination

Have you ever felt bad about the way you look?

In a study of college students, 74.4 percent of normal-weight college women said they think about their weight or appearance “all the time” or “frequently,” according to Brown University. The study also found that 46 percent of normal-weight men responded the same way.

Body image is an issue with about two-thirds of average-weight women and nearly half of average-weight men. So why is it when trying to promote positive body image, we focus on overweight women and often end up bashing thin women?

This is called reverse discrimination. Reverse discrimination is discrimination against members of a dominant or majority group, usually in the effort to make life easier for underprivileged or disadvantaged groups.

Feminism can sometimes turn into man-hating. Gay-pride can sometimes turn into straight-bashing. Anti-racism can sometimes turn into anti-white. And the attempt to encourage women to have a positive body-image mindset can sometimes turn into bashing thin women.

Reverse discrimination is sometimes looked on skeptically because the term is sometimes used by the majority group to claim that they are being discriminated against, when in reality they usually aren’t.

The problem is discrimination is still wrong, however well intentioned.

I think body image is just as big an issue with small women as it is with large women. The ideal body that commercials, movies and various media promote is not only a size 0, but also so airbrushed and Photoshopped that any woman could look at herself and think that she doesn’t have the ideal body, face, hair, etc.

We should encourage women to have a positive mindset about their body, regardless of their weight, height and shape. The last thing a woman needs is to have people tell her she needs to eat more or less or she looks anorexic. Telling a woman she looks anorexic can be just as offensive as telling a woman she looks obese.

We’re all different and that should be taken into account when we see memes or quotes on social media about who is a real woman.

Every woman is a real woman and every man is a real man. Everyone should stop bashing people because of our certain ideals of how women and men should be.

The positive body image movement should encourage people of all body shapes and sizes.

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