Have you ever thought about how much you care about beauty standards? How many people, especially women, don’t wear what they want to wear because they don’t feel good about how they look? People were crazy about the idea of a perfect body for a long time. But what makes a body perfect? Is being thin always a sign of good health? And does having a few extra pounds mean that a person is always obese and doesn’t care about how they look? Over time, these feelings of not being good enough make people think that plus-size people shouldn’t wear certain clothes.
Lizzo, an American singer, recently posted a video of herself in a bikini and said that it’s “big girl summer” and that women should wear whatever they want to show off their perfect bodies. This got a lot of attention, and many TikTok users started making videos that show how people think plus-size women should dress at the beach and what they should be wearing. In these short videos, the women were praised and applauded. Does that mean we’re breaking the stereotypes about people who are overweight?
More Info: Lizzo | Randi Bosin | Jaci Dayne | Joselyn Foust | Mara Hernandez Cruz | Cyndi Hoffer
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Lizzo recently posted a video praising women of all body types
Image credits: lizzobeeating
Bored Panda got in touch with a few of these TikTok creators, and they agreed to answer some questions about this subject. Previous videos by Randi Bosin, Joselyn Foust, and Cyndi Hoffer went viral. Randi says, however, that the videos she made to get attention never went viral until recently: “I’ve always wanted a post or video about body positivity to go viral, but it’s never happened.”
Body positivity is important to these women, both in their daily lives and in their careers. Randi is an affiliate of the “Closet Candy” boutique, which sells clothes and accessories to all kinds of women. Joselyn is a mental health professional and a therapist, and Cyndi is a dedicated mother.
Image credits: lizzobeeating
It’s always great when a lot of good things are said about your video. But if you show a more vulnerable side of yourself, it can also be scary. We asked these women how it made them feel to get so much support on social media, and they gave very honest and personal answers.
Jocelyn said, “This TikTok was very important to me for a couple of reasons. I chose to show a time in my life when I felt both free and weak. On my own social media, I talk a lot about body positivity and self-esteem, both from a professional and a personal point of view. Since I was 11, I’ve had problems with how I look and have been told I have an eating disorder. This year was the first time I started to have confidence in myself that I had never had before. “
Image credits: lizzobeeating
To get through such hard times is a victory that not only helps the person who did it but also others who are going through the same thing. ” Every day, women of all sizes from all over the world send me messages and pictures. Women tell me they love themselves more because I told them to. Women are sending pictures of themselves for the first time in their lives wearing a two-piece. I’ve had women message me to say that they were about to give up until they saw a post or video I made. It makes my heart explode, and I cry every time I get a message because it still doesn’t feel real. Randi says, “I think they’re all amazing and worthy, and all I want is for them to believe it and stop letting their minds bully their bodies because we’re taught from a young age that if we don’t look like the airbrushed models, we’re ugly.”
All three women are happy that they are there to inspire other people and break these ideas about what a perfect body looks like. Cyndi said that these videos “open the door to getting your body back to normal.”
Plus-size women started sharing videos of how people expect them to dress to the beach and how they actually dress
Image credits: mrsbosin
Does this mean that people are finally starting to talk about body image stereotypes and that we are finally getting rid of them?
What is hard to understand is that “no matter what society wants to say, plus-size people (both men and women) get turned down every day just because of how they look.” Jobs, promotions, dates… “Just because of how we look, we must be lazy, bad at school, unhealthy, and unworthy,” says Randi. Even though these problems are talked about more often now, they are still seen as a stigma. Jocelyn noticed that social media is a very important part of this. It could be seen either as a way to raise awareness or as a way to “actively push on people unrealistic beauty standards.” Cyndi was honest when she said that these stereotypes are not going away, but “as we become more confident, the world will see us as confident women, not plus-size women.”
Image credits: jaci_dayne
Randi, an affiliate of “Closet Candy” boutique, says, “Size tags don’t equal worth, and more people need to believe that.” One of the most noticeable things about their page is the different sizes. Since we knew it was hard for people with bigger bodies to find nice clothes, we asked Randi if this problem had ever been solved.
She talked about how, at the beginning of her career, she thought, “My chances of being successful in a “fashion position” as a plus-sized woman were slim to none.” This showed yet another stereotype that fashion is only for skinny girls. Many plus-size women don’t like to shop because sizes aren’t always consistent, not all stores carry plus-size, many stores charge more for plus-size clothing, and most of the time, plus-size clothing is kept separate from the rest of the clothing and doesn’t have all the same options as the other clothing.”
But now Randi can show that people of all sizes can look and feel beautiful. “I go out of my way to give realistic reviews of our line on plus-size bodies, and I work with my amazing, beautiful “thinner” stylist friends to show the pieces on a range of bodies.”
Image credits: itsjustjocelynk
Bored Panda asked our other interviewee, therapist Joselyn, how these unrealistic body stereotypes affect our mental health. She said that over the course of her career, she has seen how this distorted view of the body affects people’s mental and physical health: “When we get these awful messages from society and feel the pressures of it, or when we see things on social media that can make people compare themselves, our mental health can suffer.” I know that it’s easy for me to compare things because we’re all human. Comparison can make you feel more anxious and/or depressed. She also stressed how important it is to get help from a professional when these thoughts and actions become too much to handle.
We asked Cyndi, who loves her family and is a dedicated mother, if it is important to talk to your kids about body stereotypes. She said, “It’s very important to talk to our kids about our bodies,” because they hear a lot about it from their friends, family, society, and social media. They should know about these things from a young age.
Image credits: marawana999
These women showed how much our looks and, especially how we feel about our bodies, can affect every part of our lives. Randi said, “In the end, I just want women to love themselves more, and I want society to see that a person’s worth comes from who they are on the inside, not from the number on a scale.”
Image credits: themhoffers
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