a_natural_beauty (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
a_natural_beauty) wrote2024-04-24 05:36 am
a_natural_beauty) wrote2024-04-24 05:36 am
Entry tags:
Body acceptance rant
Recently in Pokemon Go there was an update where you have more options for your character's physical appearance. As I was going through and updating mine I was pleased to see the different body types they now offer. And some of the other games in recent years have this and I am happy to see it becoming more and more popular. We are not all a size 0 with a big bust, strong biceps, a tight behind... so it puts my mind at ease when I see such changes happening. Especially when you are younger and you are still learning to love and accept yourself (I believe this takes time for some of us more than others). So when you play as a character who you want to make to look like yourself - it's good to have a size to match!
When I was 17/18 and in my last few years of high school I had an eating disorder. Before this I was pretty chubby - I have the stretch marks to prove it. I was a pretty depressed teenager and made myself feel better by eating. I don't want to go into much detail because I don't want to blame anyone or shame them online, but regardless I started eating less and less. To the point where I went from 130 some pounds to 90 within a few months. It was terrible. I wanted to be skinny. And once I got skinny I just wanted to keep with it and make sure I stayed that size.
I don't think it was until after I graduated and started to become more of myself in my early 20's that I started to put the weight back on. That was a chapter in my life I am more open about today. I feel that a-lot of young people - and honestly anyone at any age - can go through. There is so much pressure to be skinny and to look a certain way. Maybe things are getting easier in the sense where there are more people in Hollywood with all sorts of body sizes, but sometimes I feel like this is still a never ending battle. Still at times I feel a bit insecure by my size, I feel like mentally it's something I will always struggle with. But my weight is at a good point for where I am.
How many of you guys can relate to this on some level? I feel like it's a bigger problem than society wants to talk about.
When I was 17/18 and in my last few years of high school I had an eating disorder. Before this I was pretty chubby - I have the stretch marks to prove it. I was a pretty depressed teenager and made myself feel better by eating. I don't want to go into much detail because I don't want to blame anyone or shame them online, but regardless I started eating less and less. To the point where I went from 130 some pounds to 90 within a few months. It was terrible. I wanted to be skinny. And once I got skinny I just wanted to keep with it and make sure I stayed that size.
I don't think it was until after I graduated and started to become more of myself in my early 20's that I started to put the weight back on. That was a chapter in my life I am more open about today. I feel that a-lot of young people - and honestly anyone at any age - can go through. There is so much pressure to be skinny and to look a certain way. Maybe things are getting easier in the sense where there are more people in Hollywood with all sorts of body sizes, but sometimes I feel like this is still a never ending battle. Still at times I feel a bit insecure by my size, I feel like mentally it's something I will always struggle with. But my weight is at a good point for where I am.
How many of you guys can relate to this on some level? I feel like it's a bigger problem than society wants to talk about.
Re: Thoughts
I feel like a-lot of judgement is made within the first few minutes of meeting someone. And that isn't fair at all. We are so much more than what our body shows. My heart breaks for all of those people who had to g through these experiences.
Yes! I love that saying! :D
Re: Thoughts
Any attempt to resist "company policy" is often met with "then I can't help you." They can do anything they want, as long as they don't annoy people with power. The most that victims can usually do in protest, if they have these freedoms, is leave without treatment and/or seek a new provider -- and nowadays, tell 2000 of your friends online. But even if you have freedom of choice, it's not much use when most or all medics are doing the same vicious things.
Then they bitch when people don't come to them and don't tell them things. Well duh. So yeah, if care is shitty and abusive, people will often avoid it if they possibly can.
>> I didn't know about the colleges... that's scary, too. <<
It's something I've heard a reference to more than once, although it doesn't seem ubiquitous.
I'm also aggravated by the fashion industry, which went from controlling women's bodies by mandating maximum weights for models ... to controlling women's bodies by mandating minimum weights after people bitched about the maximums. As if the problem wasn't controlling women's bodies in the first place. >_<
>> It's honestly just scary living in a world like this.<<
Sadly so. I find it less worth my while to go out in. After all, if I stay home, the wildlife doesn't give a flying fuck about how I look as long as I fill the feeders, pour the water, and plant the landscaping. This is altogether better company than 99.9% of humans.
>> I feel like a-lot of judgement is made within the first few minutes of meeting someone.<<
Most people do that. Me, I'll take a first impression, but I don't imagine that it tells me much about the person. It takes time to get to know someone. A first impression is just ...
* Is this person wearing any kind of signal suggestive of a group I favor? (pride flag, tie-dye, spacescape, etc.)
* Or conversely, a danger signal? (a huge cross or American flag, or worse, a confederate flag)
* Do they seem safe to approach?
* Do they seem useful to something I'm trying to do?
Body size/shape doesn't tell me a lot. A person with serious muscles would be more threat in a fight, but without any other signal, doesn't tell me if they're prone to picking fights. A person with a super fit and sexy body might be a mean girl, but I'd get more of that from fashion mode than physique alone.
>> And that isn't fair at all. We are so much more than what our body shows.<<
Most humans can't even figure out that they are not their body. This causes a lot of problems. Me, it's just a meatsuit I'm wearing for not even a century. It's outright misleading if you think the package tells you much about the contents. Though if you watch my body language you can clock some of the other things that I am.
>> My heart breaks for all of those people who had to g through these experiences. <<
Yeah. There are worse examples than weight, though. Society is downright brutal to people with facial differences, or no face.
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-50167927
https://web.archive.org/web/20211117123226/https://aboutfaceyork.com/2021/11/the-movement-for-face-equality/
I think the biggest issue with weight is that it affects everyone because the whole society is just soaked in prejudice and misconceptions -- and everyone has a weight, and no weight is safe from criticism. The sheer scope is what makes it devastating.
Re: Thoughts
I totally agree about wildlife. Animals, plants, nature as a whole we don't need to worry about any of that. We can just be ourselves and be happy in the moment.
I like your thoughts on when you first meet someone! Those are good thoughts to have when first seeing someone. And I love that term! Meatsuit! That's totally correct! We are all just going about life in meatsuits when you think about it!
Thank you. I'm always happy to hear your thoughts and that you share more information with me. :-)