Fluff: Stop the world. We want to get off.

Why is it that when a proud overweight girl posts a picture of her exposed stomach she is praised, but when a proud slim girl posts a picture of her exposed stomach she is condemned?

Ill probably be torn apart for this and accused of being insensitive but I want to share my view. You know what Mamamia I think you lose support of the positive body image project when you are so nasty and judgmental to smaller body shapes. Take away your patronising capital letters shouting that NOBODY LOOKS LIKE THIS and implying that the model has an eating disorder or is alien. People do look like this I have friends who look like this! Friends who are hilarious and confident and when they run on the beach their thighs don't touch and nothing jiggles. I am in the pre-baby era of life as are my friends but that doesn't make their body shapes invalid, it's not like you need to give birth before you're a real human. And yes these friends eat and they drink alcohol but they also exercise, a normal amount. They travel and they're smart and they don't live on protein shakes. you are going too far. Those images of the models photoshopped before and after are so far from scandalous the changes are barely noticeable. And you know what that proves? These ladies ARE GORGEOUS and why aren't we allowed to celebrate their beauty?! We have to bitch that they don't really look like that it's just photoshop and make nasty jokes about the fact they probably live on a rabbits diet. We have to wait for an overweight person to be as body confident as these ladies and then we can breathe out a sigh of relief and say YEHHHH we celebrate you because you're big come here and make assumptions about models with us! In many instances photoshop is ridiculous but not always and all the talk about models now weighing 23% less than the average woman when they used to weigh 8% less is probably a result of the average woman putting on shitloads of weight! We are getting bigger! We are getting too big! More food is processed, more people need the convenience of fast take out/heat up meals and people claim less time for exercise. And guess what that's actually not cool, getting bigger is not good for our health. And I appreciate the beautiful women in magazines they do make me body aware but not in a bad way. Just in a way that I feel if magazines were filled with ONLY larger women loving life I may start to think that's what a body should look like, and feel comfortable eating a few extra pieces of cake cos its normal to have lots of stomach rolls and another chin. And we know there is no normal and there is no one way a body should look and I absolutely want people to love the body their in but when I do have kids I don't want the pendulum swinging the other way and having them bombarded with you shouldn't look like THIS (insert model) you should look like this (insert overweight person) they should look like whatever form their body takes when they eat a relatively balanced diet and exercise a moderate amount. They should look healthy and happy whether that appears big or small in the eyes of others is irrelevant. I am with you I want diversity I want all shapes and sizes represented but not at the cost of judging anyone who works hard or is naturally a smaller shape.