Too Much is Just Enough

I've noticed a lot of hypocrisy in a lot of advertisements lately and, frankly, I've had quite enough of it. I know many of you will not agree with me, and that's completely fine. But I'm extremely tired of seeing commercials and PSA's that talk about women accepting their bodies and loving who they are. Unfortunately, these commercials are only aimed at women with curves.

I understand that this culture has been about glorifying the skinny and condemning the overweight for quite a while. But, contrary to popular belief, stick-thin has not always been the ideal image. Really, this look became popular with the rise of models like Twiggy and Kate Moss. It seems to me that in the past ten years, the stick thin look has been actually looked down upon. Eating disorders have been brought to light, girls have been getting the message that they should love themselves no matter what. This is all well and good, but it has gotten to the point that the super thin have been shunned and are looked down upon by society.

I have struggled with an eating disorder. This is not uncommon knowledge among my friends. This is a battle that  I have to fight every day, I have to work to not fall into old habits that seem so easy for me. But, after a lot of struggling, I am finally starting to reach a point where I am starting to accept myself and my body. I eat healthy, I run four or five days a week, and a do ballet three or four days a week. I keep up with a healthy lifestyle and it helps me stay thin and fit and healthy. I've gotten to what I consider a healthy weight, but I still get comments by a lot of people that they think I'm too thin.

Yet, it seems that people feel that they can tell me that I need to change my eating habits. I don't know when people started to get the idea that it is okay to tell others how much or what kind of food they should eat. I don't know when it became acceptable to actually poke someone and tell them they are too skinny. I don't know when it became acceptable for other people I am not eating enough. I don't know when it became acceptable for other people to tell me I need to change my lifestyle because they think I'm too skinny. I've had people tell me all of these things. If I were to tell someone they needed to lose weight, people would think I'm a monster. Yet, it's okay for people to tell me I need to gain weight? I would never go up to someone and tell them they need to start eating less, but people tell me constantly that I need to eat more. No one would ever think of going up to someone and pinching their fat and telling them how fat they are but I have had many people poke me and tell me that I'm too skinny.

No matter how people look, they are always going to have the wrong look. You will always be too this or too that. Too fat, too skinny, too tall, too short, too fit, too weak. People should always be accepted no matter what they look like. And no should ever make a comment about a person's weight in a way that makes the person feel like they are too anything. It would seem like such a simple idea, one that is almost common courtesy, but I've been proven quite wrong about this.