“Curvy” Tumblr girls, rant.
There is a certain stigma attached to men and women that are overweight, obese, morbidly obese, what have you. Generally speaking, people look at overweight individuals and immediately assume that they are lazy, eat unhealthily, and are simply a lower class of citizen.
Wait- before I go too far let me explain something to those of you who perhaps haven’t dealt with weight issues and are, thus, less knowledgable on the subject. I won’t get too technical with BMI’s and what not but I’ll give you a quick example of the difference between being overweight, obese, morbidly obese, and super morbidly obese.
I’ll start at the higher end… have you ever watched those specials on TLC and Discovery Health about the Half Ton Mom, Half Ton Dad and so on and so forth? THOSE people are SUPER morbidly obese.
Okay, now if you’ve ever watched the show on MTV called ‘I Used to be Fat’ you were more than likely looking at people who were MORBIDLY obese. Being morbidly obese basically means you are at least 80-100 pounds overweight and are in risk of having serious medical problems due to your weight.
Now the term OVERWEIGHT simply means being over a weight that is set for your height and bone structure. Most people that you see walking around in your town are ‘overweight’. Being 10-20lbs over your doctor recommended weight is being overweight. And so, of course, being between 20-80lbs overweight means you are OBESE.
Back to my rant.
Seeing as I’ve been overweight, obese, and morbidly obese my entire life I have read, watched, and researched about weight issues more than you could possibly imagine. In my years I have come to find that most people who fall into the obese category and above have at one point or another felt humiliated and discriminated against because of their weight.
Now, with all of that being said I do not condone being obese. My feelings don’t have anything to do with superficial reasons but truly being obese is a health risk. I’ve seen plenty of people on tv talk about how they are perfectly healthy despite being obese and I have to call bullshit on that. Personally, I don’t have any major health risks. I don’t have diabetes or high blood pressure or any other weight related issue but I’m far from perfectly healthy. And maybe because I’m 22 I don’t feel all of the negative effects of being overweight YET but I surely will in due time.
My point with this rant, however, does not have to do with actual health. It has to do with the stigma. Overweight people are not all stupid dirty pigs who lack self control and are less worthy of life. So I have no problem with men and women loving their own bodies despite their weight or their overall physical appearance. I have no ill feelings towards the body loving movement that has been seen in recent years. I 100% agree that your weight should not define you as a person. It should not decide what kind of job you get or which social class you should belong to.
I’ve had my tumblr for a few short months and in this time I have stumbled upon quite a few blogs that are focused on ‘curvy’ girls. I realize that some of these blogs have a huge fan following and are well appreciated by many other girls with body image issues. These blogs embrace being ‘curvy’. I have no issue with this and I think that the general positive ideals behind these blogs are great. Some people really feel insecure about their bodies and need to have a place to look to or people to reach out to when they are feeling in need of some reassurance.
However, the more I looked into these blogs the more they irritated the fuck out of me. Weight should not define who you are. AGREED. Your body does not dictate the kind of person you are. AGREED. How fat you are is not directly related to your level of intelligence or worth… COMPLETELY AGREE. So, why is it that all of the girls running these blogs INSIST on posting so many pictures of their tits and ass hanging out for the world to see? Love yourself, fine but don’t go online to a completely public place where anyone can see you and save pictures/gifs/videos of you and expose yourself. Why do all of these girls who are clearly more than impressed by their own bodies so caught up on showing their assets to every Tom, Dick, and Harry that may peruse through their blog? I do not like this.
It bothers me, as a ‘curvy’ girl, that these young women choose to expose themselves like that online. I’ve seen anon messages to them and people have asked why they want so much attention and what not and the girls running these blogs often say it isn’t for the attention. They say they do it to show confidence and that they are beautiful. But, if you are truly not doing it for the attention then why feel the need to show your nipples to the world? Are your breasts what make you beautiful? Are your nipples so gorgeous you need to expose them to the world so they can see the flawlessness of them? I doubt it. Is your ass so perfect that a picture of yourself wearing actual bottoms would not do it justice? Have some self-respect. OR just be fucking real and say that the reason you constantly post pictures of yourself is for the fucking attention from random ass strangers on the internet. But when there are younger girls following your blog and you are, in a sense, a role model to them why show them that the only way to be confident about your body is by constantly posting nude photos of yourself?
Generally I don’t care what other people do as long as it doesn’t affect me. But ever since I became a mother last year my perspective has changed. It worries me that when my daughter gets older or when my son gets older that if they do look to an outside source to gain confidence about body image issues that they may find people like these ‘curvy’ girls on tumblr. I guess all I can do as a parent is show them that your appearance does not dictate who you are as a person.
I guess I just wish that these girls would realize that they can be confident and beautiful and amazing women without having to show their bodies to strangers. If we as a community of overweight girls don’t want the world to define us by the size or shape of our bodies then why not focus on our intelligence or creativity. Instead of having words like curvy, big, naughty, luscious, etc. in your URLs why not use some other way to describe yourself besides something related to your physical attributes?
If anyone does manage to read this entire post I imagine that some people may think I’m jealous. I assure you that I am not. I am not jealous of followers, of big boobs, of big asses, or of the attention. I don’t need 50k followers because regardless… I will be posting the same shit. I’m not jealous of other people’s body because I know I’ve had two kids in the last year and I know that I have enough focus and drive to get my body to a place where i’m comfortable and happy with it. I’m not jealous of the attention. I’m in a serious, long-term, and happy relationship with the father of my two beautiful babies. I don’t need strange mens’ attention. I have tits and ass. I could show them if I pleased. But I don’t because I have self-respect and respect for the man that I’m with and for my kids.
Finally, for the chicks that go so far as to post pictures of your damn vaginas… seriously? Explain to me how showing the world your inner labia is a form of confidence? That shit is just ridiculous in my eyes. Is having people jack-off to your pictures and videos really something you take pride in? I’m pretty sure there is a HUGE BBW porn circuit. Perhaps you would find what you are seeking in that industry.
As the title states… this was just a rant of some things that have bothered me since becoming active on tumblr.
Your thoughts?