Comments on: All women are real.

By: We’re All Human, Except That Guy in the Corner « MirrorMe

We’re All Human, Except That Guy in the Corner « MirrorMe — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:08:02 +0000

[...] All Women Are Real – About how insulting the term “real woman” is. [...]

By: Fidget

Fidget — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 02:33:29 +0000

Thank you. Just got out of a heated thread elsewhere on that Urban Outfitters “Eat Less” shirt–out of the hundred-odd comments, only a handful didn’ t say either “Fat people should be told to eat less, get over it,” or “That model needs a sandwich and a tan. Real women have boobs.” So I stopped by here to recover :)

By: Montclair Mommy

Montclair Mommy — Wed, 19 May 2010 20:17:40 +0000

New to this site, late on commenting on this post. But, I LOVE it. It is so hard to accept and love your body as a woman in this society, no matter what your body looks like. We are ALL (fat, flat, bony, big-boned, large waisted, small hipped, flabby, scarred, pimpled, smooth) REAL WOMEN. If there is anything I want my child(ren) to know it is that their bodies are wonderful and perfect and that there is purpose for them besides just lookin’ good. Their bodies are powerful! You are awesome! Thanks!

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:55:36 +0000

What Emma said.

I’m a tender-hearted skinny girl, and it stings like crazy when fat folks revel in how their large breasts, hips, etc. make a woman inherently more maternal and comforting than someone like me. I ran into this three or four times while reading Fat!So? and it took the wind out of me every single time.

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:48:19 +0000

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I hate it when people talk about how “real women have curves” or refer to thin, conventionally beautiful women as “sickeningly pretty.” It’s not *her* fault you can’t see your own beauty. She just is who she is. It’s not fair or okay to pick on other people for having certain physical characteristics you don’t share, no matter what those characteristics are.

And besides, why in the name of all that is holy are we so intent on turning this into a lose-lose situation? If you’re fat, you’re ugly/unhealthy/socially unacceptable. If you’re thin, you’re anorexic/unwomanly/”sickeningly pretty” (if they’re feeling nice today). Why can’t we just accept others and ourselves for who and what we are without feeling the need to hurl insults around? I mean, does that really make people feel better?

By: BethanytheMartian

BethanytheMartian — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:35:02 +0000

I’ve been going through your archives, and this: “If anyone has the temerity to identify as a woman in this culture, I’m handing them over an Official Membership Card and inviting them to the pool party, since, you know, I’m a real woman and all. By the power vested in me, etc. etc. And because if you’re willing to put up with the bullshit women put up with every single day, then shit — you’ve earned it.”

That is one of my favorite things you have said so far.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:57:58 +0000

Exactly. We don’t have to denigrate other people in order to accept ourselves. In fact, we all need to work together on this, because the real enemy are the forces telling ALL of us that there’s something inherently wrong with our bodies.

Natural diversity is a good thing. It’s critical to the survival of any species, in fact.

By: Noel Lynne Figart

Noel Lynne Figart — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:56:21 +0000

Thank you for pointing this out.

Like you, I’m fat, and I’ve never been okay with the whole “Real women have curves” thing. I don’t want someone to think the body type I happen to have is the “right” type any more than I want people to think it’s the “wrong” type.

My body is my body, that’s all.

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:27:34 +0000

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Our culture exceeds at nothing quite so much as making people feel the bodies they were born in are somehow WRONG.

Anyhow, I don’t feel that way about thin people, and I know other sites (like Shapely Prose and Fatshionista) don’t either. Sometimes people get into FA for the first time and just kind of take the principles out of context. It’s frustrating, and it alienates people.

By: Emma

Emma — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:17:09 +0000

It’s so refreshing to actually hear a viewpoint like yours for once. For too long I’ve felt like the fat acceptance movement has been building itself up by putting down and degrading other body types – it feels like every online article I read about the movement is filled with women saying “real women have curves” or “I’m glad I don’t look sick/anorexic/like a boy” or “my body shape is more womanly and beautiful than prepubescent looking anorexic girls”. I would sit there, feeling less and less like a woman because I didn’t have “curves”, and actually began to develop self esteem issues regarding it. Not to mention the fact that people on the street felt entitled to yell things like “eat a hamburger” at me, or call me “anorexic looking” to my face, even though the fact that my little sister eats the exact same things as me and has a larger body clearly indicates that my weight is natural for me. I feel pressure from both sides (because although I’m quite thin, I’m not athletic, I have cellulite and tiny breasts – far from the ideal of the ‘perfect body’) but the movement which is supposed to make everyone okay with their shape is making me feel like I don’t belong there either.

I really, really want to see all body types and skin colours get equal representation in fashion magazines (without fanfare about how special it is that they get to be included!) but it worries me that women feel that their sense of self esteem depends on the feeling that one is ‘better’ than somebody else.

By: Terri

Terri — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 17:32:18 +0000

Awesome.

By: N

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:59:33 +0000

“My Gender Workbook” is a great way to explore just what/who ‘real men’ and ‘real women’ are… I love that book. Very thought provoking.

By: Bri

Bri — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 12:46:57 +0000

Sing it sister!!!!

I totally agree with you. I hate this “real woman” crap. What the hell is a real woman anyway? Makes me think of all this hoo ha about the Castor Semenya.

I have a ring that has an Anais Nin quote on it, something like “We never see things as they are, we see things as we are”. No one has a monopoly on what is real or true. No one.