A terrifying look into a “thinspirational” blog
Normally, I wouldn’t admit to having been led somewhere through Yahoo.com, but this is outrageous.
Skinny Gossip is a blog that aims to document thinspirations (thinspos), but generally ends up posting pictures of celebrities and lambasting them for their weight gain, attacking their looks with incredibly mean epithets, and in general doing things that remind me of my mother.
My problem with the website is this: it not only fails to acknowledge that not everybody has the capability of becoming “thin”, but also it does so in an incredibly mean way. With websites like these comparing celebrities to pigs, cows, and lard, it’s no wonder that girls feel absolutely terrible about their bodies and use extreme measures to get to an ideal. The point is that there’s nothing wrong with trying to lose weight, or trying to get fit, or not being completely content with one’s own body. But it’s also important to acknowledge that weight gain, fluctuation, etc. is a completely natural part of life; it happens to everyone and is not the worst thing that can happen to a person. If it happens, there are healthy ways to deal with it, and there’s no point in creating such an unhealthy atmosphere around it.
What’s worse are the comments on each of the posts. There are hundreds of them, all girls I presume, asking for tips on laxatives and extreme dieting, aiming for sub-100 weights, praising the comparisons that the blogger makes. Health issues aside, the mean spirit of the website is enough to foster a negative influence on its readers. Whatever happened to being kind and understanding, or are those values no longer instilled in us today? The beauty of the world around us is its diversity; in cruelly commenting on people who may not fit a certain mold, we send a hateful message. After all, we condemn people who make hateful comments against those of a different race or sexual orientation — why do we not condemn those who “hate on” different body shapes?
Another particularly strange (and frightening) thing:
This photo was posted under the tag “thunder thighs.” Sometimes I don’t even know anymore. I’m not crazy, right? Not to mention the title on this post was “Barbara Palvin has gained weight.” The absurdity of this doesn’t fail to stun me; if we’ve come to follow every fluctuation in weight of a model, then let’s face it, we’re all losers here.
A small point of hope, however: the site has agreed to take down its “Starving Tips of the Day” section. I don’t even know why that was even a point of contention, but all the same, small steps to a more positive environment are better than none at all.
My point is as follows: if you think something is beautiful, praise it. Revel in its beauty, and appreciate that it makes your life a little more joyful. Don’t turn to hating on other forms of it.
