Body Types & Memes

In this day and age where social media dominates almost every area of life there are a number of things floating around the realms of Facebook and Twitter that make me cranky. Now I don’t intend to make this post sound like an obnoxious rant but there’s a good chance that if you read it aloud it’s going to sound like just that because there’s a good chance that that’s what it’s going to end up being.

Far from me to insult the world of social media as a whole; it’s done a lot of good things to raise a lot of awareness for musicians, artists, Katie Hopkins, activists, and if nothing else if it weren’t for it then I’d have nobody to show my posts to. Except my dear mother back in Cardiff and I’m fairly convinced she doesn’t read them anyway! Yet I do take exception to how platforms such as Facebook and the usual suspects have become a breeding ground for opinions that may start off as well-meaning but quickly degenerate into total tosh and instead of eradicating one negative opinion create a brand new one of their own. Let’s face it; these days a meme containing the lyrics to Witch Doctor by Ross Bagdasarian will get a thumbs-up and a share if it’s got an image of Mahatma Gandhi sitting crossed legged with his hands together on it. If they’d done their research they’d know that not only did Gandhi not pen the classic but, despite all the great things he did, was also a man that indirectly murdered his wife and disowned his oldest son so maybe he shouldn’t always get such blind admiration all of the time. However I do digress, that’s just a topic that kind of pisses me off.

The example that I want to focus on is the current obsession with what women should look like and what makes them beautiful. Once upon a time, or so I’m told, everybody’s idea of a beautiful woman was one that had a slim physique, a strict diet and who dressed in a traditionally feminine manner. It would be easy for me to attack this notion but let’s face it I’d be pretty late to the party because just about every media outlet in the universe has beaten me to do it and that’s not to say that this narrow minded opinion doesn’t deserve to be criticised. However the thing that’s getting my blood pressure higher than Real Madrid’s transfer budget is that instead of ushering in the realisation that attractiveness is down to personal preference its instead just flipped the hate on its head!

I hate to keep referring back to those God-forsaken memes but they do a great job of illustrating my point. A little while back someone posted one with an image of Nikki Minaj, who apart from her main Asset is beanpole thin by the way, that focused on how great curvy women are and how confident and strong they should feel. I fully support such an opinion but what I didn’t agree with was the closing line that read something to the effect of;

“Only dogs like bones.”

Instead of celebrating variety and personal attractiveness over a one-fits-all attitude this message does nothing but mock women of a slimmer build and it’s not the only one that I’ve seen. Whilst years ago it may have been the norm to, and again so I’m told, blast women that weren’t a size 6 or below now it seems common place to blast any woman who is. I struggle to see how this is in any way progress and not just role reversal. It wasn’t right to mock the first body type so why should it be right to mock any other? They may not have been as heavily publicised in mainstream media but there have been several cases reported of young girls being bullied for being, what is now perceived as, underweight and resorting to extreme and even dangerous methods to try and change this. This is just as big a travesty in these circumstances as it is when the shoe is on the other foot but such mockery on social media is rarely ever scolded and sometimes even encouraged.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as the saying goes so whilst there are a number of people in the world who think Miley Cyrus is too thin, Adele is too big and Serena Williams is too muscular there are plenty of people who don’t. Anybody is entitled to these opinions but surely it isn’t any more acceptable to mock one body type more than the other? Yet the way things are going it seems in my opinion that some people have it in their head that it’s okay to do just that. Women that have thin, curvy, athletic or any other body types should be equally proud of whatever they have and mocking one is just as bad as mocking any other regardless of what the flavour of the month is at the time because it ultimately equates to the same thing; bullying.

Just for the record; Miley is kind of cute but her on-camera personality irritates me, I’m not attracted to Adele in the slightest but like some of her music and although calling Serena unattractive would be a stretch I’m honestly more into her sister.

I’m Tha Bozz and that’s my opinion.