Butts have gotten so big these last couple of years -literally. What use to be an outrageous insult is now the trend of the time and everyone –particularly women- are after it. I remember a time not so long ago when I, myself, was being mocked and ridiculed by my peers because of my “flabby” belly or “fat calves” yet now thick thighs save lives and the bigger the rear, the better.
Half of me is stoked that, as a society, we are becoming more accepting of the larger women. We still have a long way to go but at least now the standard of beauty is not limited to a skinny size six model on the cover of Elle. However, the other half of me feels like a costume and the body I’ve had for the entirety of my life (which has been beaten and bruised by the media and its unrealistic body goals) is being used a prop for Instagram baddies to try on and take off whenever they feel like it –or when this trend dies. This hurts because I can’t help but reflect on the years when I felt so uncomfortable in my own skin and the amount of diets I attempted and slimming products I tried to just try and fit in with my smaller framed classmates. The looks I would receive when I would eat my lunch as if to say- “do you really need to be eating more?” But now I see these same people bending their backs so much I fear they may break their spine, and going to the gym six days a week to build a butt that some of us just have naturally. This is fair enough to them, I find curves more appealing to the eye and some people just like the way it looks and it’s definitely a more achievable goal. But I, regrettably, feel resentment towards the women on Instagram and health and fitness blogs building a brand and earning so much money by promoting a body they only decided they wanted two years ago.
What really is the icing on top of the cake is the self-proclaimed “thick” girls, who repost booty appreciation quotes and remind their followers daily about how fat their butts are getting but would shiver at the first sight of cellulite on their thighs or their stomach overriding their underwear. Being “thick” and having a large bottom and pair of breasts are two different things, and it makes me feel frustrated when I see a man celebrating the year of the booty one minute but then slandering the large waist girl wearing a stomach showing shirt the next. We need a wider scale of love for large women, not just the ones with slim waists and promote protein shakes on the gram. To a degree, this representation can be as unhealthy as a thin model on a magazine cover. There are certain social media celebrities who even turn to cosmetic surgery to achieve their bootylicious ideals, which is their choice in their own right. But if you have a large following (which contains a heavy percentage of teenage girls) then I feel as though it’s your obligation to inform your followers that this body is not easily attainable and there are hundreds of body types and they are all gorgeous
All women are beautiful, no matter their race, clothes size or their appearance. One because it’s on the inside that matters not what lays solely on the surface, but also because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Just because you don’t find one woman attractive doesn’t mean another man doesn’t. And if you don’t find a certain woman physically appealing it doesn’t give you the right to disrespect her any less than one you do. Hopefully this large rear obsession will transcend into an era where all women are loved equally, large or small, and slowly but surely we lighten the pressure on what is beautiful and the unrealistic beauty standards society puts on us.
