You know what’s boring?

Being told what’s hot. That’s boring.

I am tired – tired, I tells ye – of talking to people of all shapes and sizes who aren’t happy with how they look, because they don’t live up to the ‘ideal.’  I’m also tired of living in a world where ‘curvaceous’ is shorthand for fat, but thin girls are told that they’re not good enough because ‘real women have curves.’

Someone needs to pin down the ‘ideal’ for me – because I am well and truly lost. Is it thin? Because that doesn’t seem to be enough – I know plenty of thin people (male and female) that don’t like what they see in the mirror. And if it’s curves – well, I’m pretty sure every curvy girl I know has been called ‘fat’ at some point or another.

Case in point: Kate Upton. If you’re not familiar with her, this is what she looks like:

Apparently, according to a website called “Skinny Gossip” (which I’m not going to link to, because I’m not going to give the author that sort of credit), Kate Upton is fat. Yes, fat. She’s also “lazy,” “lardy,” has “huge thighs, NO waist, big fat floppy boobs, terrible body definition,” and “looks like a squishy brick.”

I refer you again to the photograph above. I mean… Seriously!?

I’d like to hereby call time on ‘shaming’ of all descriptions – fat-shaming, thin-shaming, slut-shaming… What has it come to when all we ever do is try to bring each other down? No wonder our conceptions of body image are so skewed (see this post for some scary, depressing statistics) – and no wonder we’re all getting sick with everything from type 2 diabetes to anorexia. Nobody knows what they’re trying to achieve, but everyone’s safe in the knowledge that what they’ve got isn’t good enough.

I mean… Come ON guys. I’m a “weight-loss blogger” now, and I’ve received a LOT of compliments since I’ve been losing the weight – but I am not perfect. Not even close. I’ve got cellulite. I’ve got stretch marks. And my abs ain’t anything even resembling abs yet. So I am not perfect.

What I am, however, is cool with me, and at peace with the fact that, yes, I have a big ass and big boobs. That’s my body type, and that isn’t going to change no matter how much weight I lose – so I might as well bloody love it. Because if I love it, other people will love it too. I already know that if I walk out with my head held high, I’ll get more attention than if I’m down on myself – so I’ve made the conscious decision to be happy with who I am.

Unfortunately, I know way too many people that don’t seem to be able to do that – and that’s understandable. It’s hard to get out of the mindset that you’re not perfect, because we’re perpetually bombarded with messages telling us we’re not good enough, so we can’t be happy. But I’m not interested in buying into a world where only one type of body is beautiful. Variety is the spice of life, and I say we should bask in that.

Screw fat-shaming. Screw thin-shaming. Screw all that. If we keep perpetuating these things by continually snarking, we’re just making a worse world for ourselves – and we’re only ruling out our own happiness in the long-term.

And on that note, I’m going to find myself an army. Or at least a flag.

Vive la revolution!