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Even at Your Thinnest, You May Never Know What it Feels Like to Be “Skinny”
Almost every time I look at photos of myself from five or more years ago I am taken aback by what I see. As if looking at a stranger, I think to myself, “that girl is skinny.”
When I have this inner dialogue, I feel ashamed that it’s one of the first things that pop into my head. But then I remind myself that it’s not my fault. It’s how I, like much of society, have been conditioned to look at the human figure — to assign it a descriptive word that defines its shape and proportions.
Now I know that “skinny” is a subjective and relative word, yet at the same time I would argue that most of us would be on the same page if given the task of assigning the word to a certain spectrum of body types, due to said conditioning.
There is also the role of comparison and body dysmorphia that defines thinness in relation to ourselves and others. This could be an entirely different tangent but before I get deeper into this post, I want to express that it’s not up to us to decide whether or not a person should or can identify as skinny, thin, small-bodied, fat, large-bodied, etc. — their experience in their own body is completely unique and separate and, like I said, relative.
The next inner dialogue that comes up is the sad, yet surprisingly relieving…
