Women are constantly at battle with society about their appearances. Media and various texts are constantly convincing females that, in order to be successful and loved, they have to look a certain way. And if they don’t look that particular way, they are shamed into working toward that ideal image, sometimes to a dangerous extent.
Along with this shaming is the objectification of women as a persuasive technique. People compare women to fruits, geometric shapes, animals and even household goods, making them feel as though they are no longer people, but rather objects that have to be molded to a fit a particular criterion. This phenomenon has transcended and transformed through various mediums, and, now, it has taken the form of the latest challenge, #A4waist.
According to BBC, the challenge started in China with women posting photos of themselves with an 8.5-by-11 piece of paper held up vertically in front of their waists. If the paper hid their waists, they would post #A4waist to show the world that they are “paper thin.”
I may not be a medical professional, but I do know that every woman is not destined to have an 8.5-inch waist, no matter how much she exercises or how balanced her diet is. Every woman is physically different; they each have different heights, shapes, weights and features that will never be the same as the woman next to them.
While many claim these trends to be fitness challenges, they are not fitness challenges at all. The size of a woman’s waist is not a measure of her fitness. Look at athletes Serena Williams, Ronda Rousey and Hope Solo. None of these women are paper thin, yet they are all a part of a group of some of the fittest women in society.
In contrast, look at Maria Sharapova, Jessica Ennis-Hill or Shawn Johnson, all of whom would most likely win this trending challenge. What’s important to note is that the differences between these three women and those who were previously mentioned are related to the women’s physical appearances, not their respective levels of fitness.
Society has this unrealistic ideal that the thinner women are, the more beautiful they will appear. But in reality, thin is not a measure of beauty. Thin is a piece of paper, a single strand of hair, and, at this point, the level of patience that women have with society’s treatment of the gender. Thin is a word that describes objects, and women are not objects. They are people.
While some women may be naturally tall and thin, others may be short and curvy. But what defines these women is not what they look like on the outside and how close or far they are from being paper thin, but what is on the inside. Beauty is a woman who is confident in herself and who accepts her flaws. Beauty is the realization that every woman is unique in her physical appearance, her personality and mentality. And beauty is the understanding that women are not objects; they are people who were not put on this earth to please others.
Yes, some women are genetically inclined to be thinner than others. But no woman is genetically inclined to be the equivalent of an inanimate object. No woman is genetically inclined to be objectified. No woman was born to be paper thin.
