alyxxstacy1990 wrote:
Hello all! My name’s Alyssa, but that’s not relevant to this post. As you can see from the picture above, this post is not about me or my body (I have body insecurities, but I don’t feel like that’s something that needs to be discussed at the moment.) This post is about something I’ve heard for years that’s bugged me and seems to go on with no understanding of why it’s bad.
How many of you girls (and maybe even boys) look at the picture above and pick apart the guys in the photographs? How many of you chastise one body type over another? As you can see, the three fellas in the photographs have two very dramatic body types from one another and that’s OK. I actually think all three of these guys are gorgeous, but for years, I have heard girls talk about guys the same way we hate guys to talk about us and it doesn’t seem to get through to us females why it’s just as bad.
I hear a lot of girls, all the time, complaining about guys when they talk about another girl’s body. When they call her fat, or say she’s too skinny, or stare at her large chest or butt. We call it body-shaming. Yes, that is body-shaming. They’re obviously poking and prodding at what makes a girl insecure about herself or what makes other girls insecure about themselves. It’s also a form of bullying and it hurts. I don’t know about you, but I hate listening to guys sit there and talk about how hot some girl is because of her breasts or her butt. I hate listening to a guy tell a girl that she should work out and lose weight or eat a sandwich and gain weight. We are not put on this earth to be eye candy for men. We’re not put here to be looked at as sex objects or to look whatever way they desire because every person different. What may be unappealing to one person may be the most beautiful thing in the world to another. We girls get extremely offended whenever a guy points out something that makes us insecure, but you know what? We’re guilty of it just as much as they are.
Those same girls, who cry and complain about guys being shallow and only looking at the outward appearance of a girl, are also the same girls who can look at the picture above and (most of them) will say that the two skinny guys are ugly because they don’t have six packs. They’re the same girls who will reject a chubby guy just because he’s overweight. They’re the same girls who will trail after muscular guys and drool over them, but not give a nice guy a shot because his body is not what they’re looking for. Now, I’m not saying that you have to like every guy that likes you. Certainly not. You’re allowed to not be attracted to a person, but just because that person is not what you’re attracted to doesn’t give you the right to cut them down. Someone else may be attracted to that person and you have no right to make that person feel as though there’s something wrong with them because, “he’s too skinny. He should lose some weight. He has no muscles.” Let me tell you something. Muscular arms, broad shoulders, and six packs are to girls what boobs, butts, and a flat tummy are to boys. They’re an excuse to body-shame someone. And just because that someone is a man doesn’t mean that his body doesn’t deserve the same respect that your female body does.
All three of those guys seem to be cool guys. I don’t know them personally. They could all be assholes or jerks. Whatever, but the main thing is that their body type doesn’t define them. Just because Alex Gaskarth and Jack Barakat from All Time Low are skinny doesn’t mean that they’re gay, unmanly, or any of those things and even if they are, there’s nothing wrong with that! Just because Taylor Lautner is muscular doesn’t mean he’s stupid, brain-dead, superficial, or whatever and if he was, who cares? The fact of the matter is that guys are people, too, and we can’t expect them to sit there and not talk bad about our bodies when we sit there and do the same damn thing to them. They deserve the same respect that they should be giving us. Skinny, chubby, muscular, average, disabled, identifies as female, whatever! A man’s body is as much of a sanctuary as a woman’s body and as long as it’s healthy, taken care of, and they’re comfortable in their own skin, there’s nothing wrong with them. You may not think that a certain guy is hot, but that doesn’t give you any right to disrespect their bodies. So, before you make from of that tall, lanky kid for being too thin or wearing skinny jeans; before you mock the short, chubby guy for having a little extra weight on him; before you cut down a guy who doesn’t have any muscles or tone to his body, remember what you feel like when you hear someone comment negatively about your body. Remember that that guy could be feeling those same insecurities and not saying anything about it. Remember that he’s a person, who’s going through his day-to-day life, trying to enjoy himself and you don’t have any right to tell him that he’s not a man because he’s not muscular. Remember that he’s a human being and he deserves the same respect that you demand from him and his peers. We’re all humans, we all have insecurities, and we all deserve to be praised for being strong enough to fight through them. Respect every body, gender, sexuality, religion, race, and class. Respect humans!
