Does Size Matter?

I know what you’re thinking: yet another person lamenting about society’s distorted perception of women and their size.  Well, actually, you may be right, but not in the way you may think.

Several years ago, it became apparent to masses of people that the media’s depiction of women as anything but the typical size 12 had wrecked havoc on the self-esteem of women everywhere; or at least, what was considered to be the vast majority of women.  What followed were attempts left and right to show the world that “real” women were not “stick” figures, that “real” women had “curves”, and efforts to show women everywhere that they were beautiful with their “curves” are being thrown as far as the eye can see.

I have to say, I’m proud of us for jumping on this bandwagon and committing ourselves to bolstering the shriveling self-worth of women all over the world.  It’s about time.  But there is one tiny problem with all of this…

I think we’ve gone too far.

We now seem to be intent on destroying the self-esteem of those women who are small; we seem to believe that the 2’s and the 4’s are only those sizes because they’ve starved themselves, or because they’re under pressure to be that size.  We seem to have forgotten that people, women included, come in all shapes and sizes, and that all those shapes and sizes are worthwhile human beings.

I personally fluctuate between a 2 and a 4, and have always been small.  At age eleven, my mother,( to my horror) would delight in showing all of her friends how she could put her hands around my waist, squeeze,  and her middle fingers would meet.  I wore little girls jeans until I was a junior in high school when size 0 began to appear.  I remember being 12 years old, badly wanting the jeans that all my friends were wearing, and then crying because stores didn’t sell them in my size.  I also ate whatever I wanted however much I wanted and never gained an ounce, nor did I get much exercise.  Trust me, when I say I did nothing to be that size, it’s an understatement.

The point is, I didn’t ask to be small, nor did I engage in any health jeopardizing activity to be this size, yet society has now taken it upon themselves to impart this if-you-aren’t-size-12-you-aren’t-real mentality on all of us.  For the sake of argument, if I had chosen to be this size and did everything necessary, within the bounds of all things healthy, wouldn’t that be my choice? Would I deserve to be bashed because of that choice?

If a size 12 woman has measurements of 38-28-40, then yes, she has “curves”.  But guess what?  A size 2 woman whose measurements are 32-22-32 also has “curves”, mostly evident by the difference in waist and hip measurements.  Almost ALL women have this variation in size between waist and hip, no matter what their overall size is.  My question is, why, with women everywhere dedicating themselves to the ‘build the self-esteem’ cause, are smaller women being put down?

This is counterproductive to what society is apparently trying to achieve.  But perhaps the thinking behind this mentality is that the smaller women already have healthy self-esteem and body image, therefore it doesn’t matter what derogatory things are being said.

I can only hope that there will come a time when the self-esteem of all women, and men as well, becomes as important to society as currently seems to be the case with size 12 women only.

We all count, we all matter, we are all real, and we are all, yes all, beautiful in our own right.  Let’s try to remember that.