not trying to start a fight here but just a point...

That's why the body acceptance movement is so crucial and why we all should love our bodies (myself included because goodness knows I don't!). Whether it be "skinny shaming" or "fat shaming" or whatever, it's harmful and shouldn't be happening. I myself am guilty of saying stuff about feeding people - usually skinny (male) singers - but I've learned that it's not helpful to overall feelings of well-being, even when said only to myself.

This. Skinny bashing and Fat bashing are all body shaming. The really bad thing is that women face this pressure more often then men (although not exclusively, I know the guys get it too), and we often do it to each other!

Body shaming is bad. Doesn't matter what type of body at which the shaming is directed.

I have been sick for 2 weeks, and I am down 6lbs putting me below my weight, I should be 135-140. 140 is where I look great, I am currently only 129. Here are some of the comments I heard this weekend.

ummmm, you gonna actually eat something
I can see you hipbones and count your ribs, you need to do something
You have to stop exercising your to low
anorexic *****, eat something
WTF, you are wasting away
You look sickly that small
Look at you, your clothes are falling off you

Thats what I got in 2 days over the weekend....just an example!

I'm curious though...... you've obviously lost a lot of weight according to your ticker.... didn't you get just as many comments or more when you were overweight?? And although none of these comments are acceptable, I'm thinking surely they were from "friends" or family, not random strangers. NO body shaming is okay, no matter which "side" it's on... I just know that in my case, all comments I've ever heard to overweight people are HORRIBLE and made even by random strangers on the street. All comments I've ever heard made toward slender people were more of a "man, I wish I had that "problem" kind of comment, OR something a little more negative by people closer to them, not just random strangers.... I don't know, I'm not by any means speaking for everyone, everywhere.... just an observation of my 50+ yrs on the planet....

I don't think it matters who the comments are coming from. Personally, I take these type of comments from people I know harder than when they come from random strangers. The point is that regardless of whether someone is calling you fat or giving you grief for being too skinny (in their mind) the comments are still hurtful and unacceptable. Even with as proud as I am of myself for how far I've come, all it takes is one "oh my, you're wasting away to nothing" comment to make me hate the girl in the mirror all over again the same way I did when I was over weight.

I agree with you. (Although I've never been skinny by any means, so I have no idea how that feels) I would be much more hurt by "friends" and family comments than from strangers as well. Totally agree that BOTH are unacceptable. And you should be proud... You're awesome! Never hate the girl in the mirror, please.... I'm sure there are FAR more people in your life who love you and the girl in the mirror at any size... :flowerforyou:

Why is it more socially acceptable to be overweight or obese these days, but it is not acceptable to be skinny.

You are not allowed to say that some needs to diet, but you are allowed to say that someone needs to eat a pizza or something.

i think that this is wrong, both are unhealthy, both are ways of life, heck both are even illnesses, eating yourself to death and people say sorry, people feel bad and try to support you, but people 'not eating enough' are ridiculed and told to seek professional help and in most cases shouted at and told to grow up.

Not right in my opinion.

LOL! It's NOT more socially acceptable to be bigger. I don't know where you're getting your intel from, but it's clearly flawed.

Both are unacceptable. Period.
But I feel that overweight people tend to get it much worse. That is purely my experience (n=1), but I was SKINNY growing up, and my best friend was overweight. Kids (and adults!) would pick on her every day until she was in tears, but the comments I received on being underweight were few and far between.

I come from the opposite end of receiving unwanted harsh words from people. Everyone felt it was acceptable to tell me I should have cheeseburgers shoved down my throat. Because, yea, that's totally acceptable to say to someone.

neither should be acceptable, but somehow people assume "skinny" or even fit people can handle being shamed, while overweight people cannot. As though fit people should be, because they "deserve" to be, while that is not the case. No one should be shamed. Everyone should worry more about taking care of themselves and obtaining the weight they find that they are happy and healthy in and not worry with what others think they should be.

This... What I said better said.

From what I've noticed:

It's still far more socially preferable to be on the thinner side.
It's still far more socially offensive to comment on a person being fat.
It's still far more socially acceptable to comment on a person being thin.

Agree with all this.

"Thin shaming" does exist. But since thin/fit/lean/ripped/etc is still the accepted preference, many people feel perfectly comfortable taking jabs, or having mock "concern", for thinner people and just expect them to take it. Why? Because the "privileged" class is expected to be so happy to be the preference that their feelings can't really be hurt.

So if a fat woman comes up to a thin woman and says "you need to eat a cheeseburger" it's not thought of generally as insulting as the thin woman rebutting "you need to eat a whole lot less cheeseburgers".

Hmm. I think saying "you need to eat a cheeseburger" to someone would be considered super rude and socially unacceptable, at least in the society I live in (which seems to involve far less comments of that sort to either the fat or the thin than some report). What I see as the difference (having been fat and also reasonably thin, although never especially so) is that no one would say something about your fatness and think it would be anything but a sensitive subject. At one point I did have a friend encourage me to lose weight, but carefully and encouragingly (and it still bothered me, of course). Usually it was just a topic that was avoided or felt kind of awkward if it related to someone else's weight (i.e., a discussion of how someone else's weight was commented on, people would proclaim how wrong that are and I'd sometimes get the impression they were making a point of it for my benefit, but who knows). Anyway, I always felt like I had to defuse it first by making comments so everyone knew I knew I was overweight (I tried not to do this obnoxiously, but again, who knows, easy to misjudge), and generally being nonchalant about it, jokey, because of course my whole thing was that I didn't mind being overweight.

Ugh, anyway, when I did lose a bunch of weight for a while my friend who had encouraged me and some others would tell me I was a "skinny minny" and "so thin" and stuff like that, and even say that I could eat more--all the things that seem to be reported as offensive, and it's absolutely true that they didn't strike me as offensive at all, but quite flattering. I liked them, although I was embarrassed to have my body commented on in general. I'm sure that's partly because I don't have any past experience of being made to feel about about being too thin (I was basically average when growing up and worried only about looking fat, although I wasn't), and because I'd lost weight, but I think it's also because I live in an environment that is somewhat less fat than the US on average and where thinness definitely is prized and I rarely hear comments about people being too thin.

But also I think comments about bodies, and certainly unflattering ones, are more looked down on in this environment than some others report, and people are hesitant in general to make comments at all. So there are social differences and I guess I'm lucky.

Oh, and my Facebook presence is limited, so I don't know what's floating around there. I will say that I get the positive intent of "real women have curves" (the fear that young women tend to hate themselves for being too fat when they are not, and feel pressure to be excessively thin) while seeing it as a mistake that ignores the effect on women with other natural body types, and certainly subject to being used with mean intent. So I don't like it. Anything about what body type men like as some kind of dumb slogan is obviously problematic for other reasons.

From what I've noticed:

It's still far more socially preferable to be on the thinner side.
It's still far more socially offensive to comment on a person being fat.
It's still far more socially acceptable to comment on a person being thin.

"Thin shaming" does exist. But since thin/fit/lean/ripped/etc is still the accepted preference, many people feel perfectly comfortable taking jabs, or having mock "concern", for thinner people and just expect them to take it. Why? Because the "privileged" class is expected to be so happy to be the preference that their feelings can't really be hurt.

So if a fat woman comes up to a thin woman and says "you need to eat a cheeseburger" it's not thought of generally as insulting as the thin woman rebutting "you need to eat a whole lot less cheeseburgers".

Of course thin people's feelings can be hurt. But fat people, in general, come up so ashamed and embarrassed about our bodies that many of us really didn't imagine that a thin person could be hurt by having their thinness, often the object of our envy, called out.

This. Fat shaming and skinny shaming are both things that happen, but they're usually coming from a different place. A concerned grandmother will tell you that you ought to put on some more weight. A former middle school bully will call you a fatty and tell you to stop eating. (Speaking in stereotypes, of course; I'm aware it sometimes goes the other way.)

In my experience, it's the skinny-shamers who are more likely to be unaware that their comments are offensive. I remember being taught growing up that fat people are people, too, and that it's none of my business, and that it's never appropriate to tease someone for being fat; but I never got that lesson about skinny people. (I was the super skinny kid, and yes I got teased.) I think a lot of people think they're being genuinely helpful when they tell you you're too skinny. Like they're releasing you from the societal pressures that they think made you this way.

I also think a lot of skinny-shaming happens in direct response to being supportive of "curvy" women. We've all heard that real women have curves, right? Except by now we should know that we don't have to hate on skinny women in order to be supportive of fatter ones. Hint: In order to say "I like your body" you don't have to say "I hate other bodies".

Either way, it's awful. I call people out on it whenever I get the chance.

From what I've noticed:

It's still far more socially preferable to be on the thinner side.
It's still far more socially offensive to comment on a person being fat.
It's still far more socially acceptable to comment on a person being thin.

"Thin shaming" does exist. But since thin/fit/lean/ripped/etc is still the accepted preference, many people feel perfectly comfortable taking jabs, or having mock "concern", for thinner people and just expect them to take it. Why? Because the "privileged" class is expected to be so happy to be the preference that their feelings can't really be hurt. I can brush off a comment from a family member that was genuine concern. I don't think anybody is referring to that.

So if a fat woman comes up to a thin woman and says "you need to eat a cheeseburger" it's not thought of generally as insulting as the thin woman rebutting "you need to eat a whole lot less cheeseburgers".

Of course thin people's feelings can be hurt. But fat people, in general, come up so ashamed and embarrassed about our bodies that many of us really didn't imagine that a thin person could be hurt by having their thinness, often the object of our envy, called out.

This. Fat shaming and skinny shaming are both things that happen, but they're usually coming from a different place. A concerned grandmother will tell you that you ought to put on some more weight. A former middle school bully will call you a fatty and tell you to stop eating. (Speaking in stereotypes, of course; I'm aware it sometimes goes the other way.)

In my experience, it's the skinny-shamers who are more likely to be unaware that their comments are offensive. I remember being taught growing up that fat people are people, too, and that it's none of my business, and that it's never appropriate to tease someone for being fat; but I never got that lesson about skinny people. (I was the super skinny kid, and yes I got teased.) I think a lot of people think they're being genuinely helpful when they tell you you're too skinny. Like they're releasing you from the societal pressures that they think made you this way.

I also think a lot of skinny-shaming happens in direct response to being supportive of "curvy" women. We've all heard that real women have curves, right? Except by now we should know that we don't have to hate on skinny women in order to be supportive of fatter ones. Hint: In order to say "I like your body" you don't have to say "I hate other bodies".

Either way, it's awful. I call people out on it whenever I get the chance.

Fit/skinny shaming goes far beyond genuine concern. It's down right rude and completely intentional. Calling fit mothers neglectful and selfish mothers, that they should be spending that time with their kids. Saying only pedophiles are attracted to thin/fit women, and not to trust them around your kids. This is not concern or unintentionally rude comments. It's downright meanness. (Is meanness a word?) I can brush off a comment from a family member that came from genuine concern. I don't think anybody is referring to that.

From what I've noticed:

It's still far more socially preferable to be on the thinner side.
It's still far more socially offensive to comment on a person being fat.
It's still far more socially acceptable to comment on a person being thin.

"Thin shaming" does exist. But since thin/fit/lean/ripped/etc is still the accepted preference, many people feel perfectly comfortable taking jabs, or having mock "concern", for thinner people and just expect them to take it. Why? Because the "privileged" class is expected to be so happy to be the preference that their feelings can't really be hurt.

So if a fat woman comes up to a thin woman and says "you need to eat a cheeseburger" it's not thought of generally as insulting as the thin woman rebutting "you need to eat a whole lot less cheeseburgers".

Of course thin people's feelings can be hurt. But fat people, in general, come up so ashamed and embarrassed about our bodies that many of us really didn't imagine that a thin person could be hurt by having their thinness, often the object of our envy, called out.

A) being thin/fit is not a privilege, as it takes hard work and dedication for most. being told I need to be forcefed cheeseburger is as insensitive as me refuting that someone should eat less of them. Both are wrong. Both hurt and just because I may appear to have it all together, because I am priveleged to look the way I look doesn't mean I don't have feelings. I too can and have been embarrassed by things people lob at me for my appearance. Its a two-way street. We should all learn that its simply not ok on either side of the spectrum. Instead, we should encourage one another to be happy with ourselves and not try to make ourselves feel better by putting others down.

People with this view will never change. It doesn't matter if you have never made a rude comment about a fat person. People LIKE you have, and therefore you deserve retribution and have NO right to complain, because there is somebody out there who has faced much harsher criticism than you, so just deal with it.

Some skinny people were really horrible to overweight people. So all skinny people should now take it up the *kitten*, and they better enjoy it damn it. Check your privilege. (Cause we all know we were born with fit privilege, we didn't work for it or anything)

Um, I have NEVER shamed ANYONE and I NEVER would. I cannot and will not accept responsibility of anyone who was ever a *kitten* to anyone else for their weight or anything else. I never said I had it worse. I said it was equal. You are right. Skinny people have been horrible to overweight people. Just as overweight people have been to skinny people. I said that both were wrong for it and that it needs to be stopped and that we should all encourage one another to get to the point we all feel healthy and happy.

Whoa killer. It's sarcastic. This is the viewpoint of those who constantly excuse fit shaming and say it's not comparable to fat shaming.