owlsandelephants:This gorgeous picture has been making the rounds, and some particularly cruel thi
owlsandelephants: This gorgeous picture has been making the rounds, and some particularly cruel things have been said about it. I feel really sad, knowing that essentially when people make negative comments about a fat or non-normative body what they are saying is How dare you be comfortable with your body (when I am not comfortable with my own) And/or How dare you question my beliefs, particularly about right vs wrong It is such a shame - so sad - that people are that terrified - that threatened - by another person’s comfort and acceptance, and by beliefs that differ from their own. How great is their fear that they are so threatened not by the confrontation of that body to their own, but just the mere existence of the body itself. If this type of fear is not a parallel to racism, to sexism, to homophobia, to religious discrimination, then I do not know what is. Possibly the only hope in it all is that such fear has to come from a place of instability and doubt; these people are so unsure of the rightness of their beliefs that the existence of something that has no physical effect on them is as threatening as it is. That said, this tiny bit of hope does in no way justify the hate speech these people engage in. It needs to stop. I can only wish for circulation of more gorgeous images like the one above, to help reinforce one of the most important political messages of my generation: All bodies are good bodies. Respect yourself, respect others. -- source link