I am tired of self-righteous people making take after take about who is allowed to call themselves curvy and who is not. Any time I try to read takes about body positivity, and a lot of what I see is girls defending one body type and bashing another. The most popular one seems to be differentiating between fat and curvy. I didn’t realize that we lived in a world where we had the assumed right to tell people what they are and aren’t allowed to label themselves.

First and foremost, I want to know why it matters. If they want to call themselves curvy, who does it hurt? And where in the dictionary does it say that curvy is defined solely by a woman of one specific body type? Last I checked, the definition of curvy was a continuously bending line without edges. And guess what? Curves can curve outwards, inwards, upwards, and downwards and they can curve in all of those directions at once. Rolls are a curve, fingers have curves, your arms have curves – it’s all a curve. I’m 5’2” and a 115 lbs and I still have curves; I have a friend who is 6’2” and over 200 lbs and she has curves too. They’re all curves. There’s no exclusive rights to the curve.

It seems to me that it’s all about competing; who has the best, ideal body and who gets to wear the most currently desired label. So, instead of bringing each other up and encouraging everyone to feel good about themselves, we’ll assign ourselves exclusive rights to the title of dictator of the body brigade and begin making decisions on who can feel what about themselves.

I get it: people don’t want to associate the word curvy with what they deem as unhealthy. But here’s the kicker: someone else’s health is not your business nor is it your responsibility, not to mention you have NO CLUE what their health is. I know many plus sized people personally who are far healthier than you would assume given their weight.

I guess I just don’t get the whole “if we show people plus sized individuals who are happy with themselves it will encourage them to be fat.” No, it won’t, not if they have the proper knowledge about health in the first place. These people aren’t telling you to go out and eat a burger, they’re saying: “Hey, I’m bigger and I don’t hate myself.” That’s no more ridiculous than saying if we have transsexual actors our kids are all going to become transsexual. Teach and parent instead of relying on the media to tell people what’s right, perhaps?

Sorry for such an angry take for today, but this topic really got me going today and I’m tired of people putting each other down over something as trivial as body shape. How about we concern ourselves with our own bodies and our own health instead of worrying about others who didn’t ask for our opinions?



Have a good weekend and to my Canadian friends, happy Thanksgiving!