Good morning from Canada, this was a great read. Also, i have been inundated with skinnytok and skinny insta videos so I used every single video in your post (and loved all of them FYI) to try and clean my algorithm up. I liked the raw honesty of this post and all of the videos too. The arm one in particular hit me because just recently, I have been looking in the mirror at my arms with a lot of "why are you so big" thoughts forgetting that a) i am not a walking photoshop filter and b) normal humans have arms that are larger or smaller.
I think it is because our arms are so visible. They are just so out there and it is hard to hide them no matter what you do. They are there and loud and proud and you can't hide or make up or spanx them away.
Thank you for this nuanced piece, Nikki. I spent two decades with anorexia and then disordered eating and it’s incredibly important that we discuss this. In midlife I’ve more or less accepted my body and will not starve it, but I worry for my girls and their peers that between Hollywood and social media, skinny and “perfect” is all they see.
I follow @danaemercer on Instagram and find her posts inspiring. She’s thin but goes through the tricks influencers use to make themselves look the way they do. And Sonya Renee Taylor’s work on body acceptance is also beautiful. And thank you for the other disruptor suggestions!
Thanks, great piece! I've never been a 'sporty' person but as I get older, am increasingly in awe of those who are. I weep for my mispent youth (books, books, books, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, laughing at joggers and gym go-ers) and have since discovered I actually like exercise. Two Instagram accounts I enjoy & reccomend, run by women who are funny, smart, body / health postive and physically strong - @ilonamaher and @elisabethwykert
I´m 47 and I have an Aphrodite body type (that´s how I call it). I started pole dancing at 46, one and a half year ago. I show my not skinny body on social media, especially on Instagram posting my pole dance videos on stories.
I have been getting stronger every day since I started and it has been incredible to connect with my body, my feminine energy, my sensuality, and not caring what other people think.
After all the self love work i´ve done, now at 47 I love my body. 💃💃
I see a lot of the emphasis on thinness among women as another way of “inferiorizing,”, as you point out, and subjecting ourselves to endless self-scrutiny. To celebrate any “choice” a woman makes about her face and/or body as feminist is to ignore the oppressive systems that determine those choices.
To illustrate this further I will use myself as an example. I have always been slim but a year ago I started losing weight, and rather than register alarm at this, as I should have done, I was perversely proud of it. Long story short I almost died of a clandestine infection in my pleural cavity and spent 11 days in hospital, which included a surgical procedure to cut out the infection. So… I look at things differently now and I want to focus on strength and actual health.
Good morning from Canada, this was a great read. Also, i have been inundated with skinnytok and skinny insta videos so I used every single video in your post (and loved all of them FYI) to try and clean my algorithm up. I liked the raw honesty of this post and all of the videos too. The arm one in particular hit me because just recently, I have been looking in the mirror at my arms with a lot of "why are you so big" thoughts forgetting that a) i am not a walking photoshop filter and b) normal humans have arms that are larger or smaller.
Thanks again
thank you! I did an Instagram post about arms a while back that was very popular… why are arms, I wonder, such a target for our body shame?
I think it is because our arms are so visible. They are just so out there and it is hard to hide them no matter what you do. They are there and loud and proud and you can't hide or make up or spanx them away.
Thank you for this nuanced piece, Nikki. I spent two decades with anorexia and then disordered eating and it’s incredibly important that we discuss this. In midlife I’ve more or less accepted my body and will not starve it, but I worry for my girls and their peers that between Hollywood and social media, skinny and “perfect” is all they see.
I follow @danaemercer on Instagram and find her posts inspiring. She’s thin but goes through the tricks influencers use to make themselves look the way they do. And Sonya Renee Taylor’s work on body acceptance is also beautiful. And thank you for the other disruptor suggestions!
Thanks, great piece! I've never been a 'sporty' person but as I get older, am increasingly in awe of those who are. I weep for my mispent youth (books, books, books, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, laughing at joggers and gym go-ers) and have since discovered I actually like exercise. Two Instagram accounts I enjoy & reccomend, run by women who are funny, smart, body / health postive and physically strong - @ilonamaher and @elisabethwykert
I´m 47 and I have an Aphrodite body type (that´s how I call it). I started pole dancing at 46, one and a half year ago. I show my not skinny body on social media, especially on Instagram posting my pole dance videos on stories.
I have been getting stronger every day since I started and it has been incredible to connect with my body, my feminine energy, my sensuality, and not caring what other people think.
After all the self love work i´ve done, now at 47 I love my body. 💃💃
Thank you so much for this and the recommendations; adding them to my follow list now...
I see a lot of the emphasis on thinness among women as another way of “inferiorizing,”, as you point out, and subjecting ourselves to endless self-scrutiny. To celebrate any “choice” a woman makes about her face and/or body as feminist is to ignore the oppressive systems that determine those choices.
To illustrate this further I will use myself as an example. I have always been slim but a year ago I started losing weight, and rather than register alarm at this, as I should have done, I was perversely proud of it. Long story short I almost died of a clandestine infection in my pleural cavity and spent 11 days in hospital, which included a surgical procedure to cut out the infection. So… I look at things differently now and I want to focus on strength and actual health.
Very much appreciate this.