An Australian blogger, who celebrates her body by sharing naked pictures of herself on social media, has hit back at those who label her ‘too skinny’.
Jessa O’Brien – who goes by the name The Nude Blogger – says she’s been urged to ‘eat more’ by shamers who also tell her to ‘wait until she’s had five kids’ and she won’t be posting any more.
The popular blogger found internet fame after sharing images of her body online but says ‘you don’t have to be fat to be a victim of body-shaming’.
‘It is also experienced at the other end of the spectrum, although this aspect tends to fly under the radar a little more,’ Jessa wrote in a recent blog post.
Jessa went on to say that everyone has insecurities and ‘individual battles we are working to overcome’.
‘When it comes to body-shaming, there seems to be this double standard that pervades society and is, sadly, tolerated and even exacerbated,’ she wrote.
‘Why have we developed such a complex around the word ‘fat’? Why do we find ourselves whispering that word but not so much the ‘skinny’ word?
‘Quite frankly, these blatant double standards I have been subject to have given me a bit of, what I call, a ‘skinny girl complex’.’
Jessa said it had led her to speak out – despite the potential ‘judgements and criticism’ she might face.
‘I believe everybody should feel comfortable in the skin they’re in, regardless of weight or size,’ she wrote.
‘Everybody has the right to feel positive about their body, and should.’
Jessa says that for her, body positivity is about ‘being at one’ with her body ‘without being defined by it’ and that she has experienced her own struggles.
‘Today I put my foot down and talk about the skinny elephant in the room and expose the unacceptable double standard that has become an accepted and entrenched norm when it comes to body-shaming,’ she went on.
‘I have been slim most of my life, despite being able to eat enough food for an entire family…of 10! In the past, I have even been questioned about whether I am bulimic…
‘I know, some of you are probably thinking, ‘cry me a river’… and it’s because I’m skinny and look a certain way, right?
‘Perhaps you’re thinking that this is all so easy for me to talk about because, as a skinny girl, I should feel confident?
‘Or that, maybe, because I’m not fat and don’t struggle with the concept of being healthy that my input bears a little less weight on the matter of body-positivity?
‘Perhaps you think that I would be a little more deserving of credit, and even worthy of praise, if I was overweight, embracing my curves and shouting it from the rooftops?
‘But because I’m skinny, conscious about my health and post naked photos regularly, that somehow I am less deserving of your time or kindness? That my efforts scream vanity and attention-seeker?
‘Well maybe you, too, are an unconscious body-shamer…’
Jessa went on to say it seems as if society has ‘a little more compassion’ for an overweight person who is confident.
‘But as soon as it’s a skinny person, we almost shrug it off as if it’s an insignificant feat that someone skinny feels comfortable in the skin they’re in,’ she wrote.
‘Why is it more tolerable to casually and openly comment on the size of a skinny person, but not so much a fat person?
‘For me, body-shaming is, at its simplest, making someone feel ashamed about their body in some regard.
‘So, whether you’re skinny, fat, confident or not, body-shaming is not bias.
‘In fact, I’m sure many of us have been on the receiving end at one point or another, and I’m just as sure that just as many of us may even be guilty of, intentionally or unintentionally, body-shaming another at some point in time.
‘Well, it’s never too late to become aware, informed and proactive,’ the blogger concluded.
