No one needs statistics to tell them that society historically idolizes a certain kind of woman.
She is young, thin, beautiful, and often, white.
This girl is omnipresent, and we all know it.
HOLLYWOOD, CA - FEBRUARY 28: Actress Daisy Ridley arrives at the 88th Annual Academy Awards at Hollywood & Highland Center on February 28, 2016 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Gregg DeGuire/WireImage)
Naturally, we grow frustrated.
“Where are the other women?”
“Where are the women of color?
The women over the age of 30?
The differently abled women?”
Where are the women who look like me?
This week, memes insultingStar Warsactress Daisy Ridleycirculated the Internet.
Who cast me anyway?
Don’t they know real women have curves?"
Feminism is about recognizing the systems of oppression that are holding women back.
Yes, Daisy Ridley is a beautiful, white, thin, young woman.
And by being such, she fits the bill of conventional beauty in our society.
But she isn’t the problem.
She’s a piece of the problematic puzzle, but she’s certainly not at the root of it.
And by criticizing her appearance, we’re not getting ourselves anywhere.
We need to remember to criticize the institutionnot the individual.
Real women have curves.
Real women also don’t.
A more empowering definition of the term “real woman” would be all-encompassing.
“Every woman is a real woman,” for example.
Because, guess what.
That’s the truth.
Now, it’s important to realize that skinny-shaming is inherently different from fat-shaming.
Heavier women are the typically oppressed group.
For thin people, the opposite tends to be true.
So while fat-shaming perpetuates harmful norms, skinny-shaming subverts these normsbut it does so through insult.
The two are different, butboth are destructive.
No one should be made to feel ashamed of their appearance, no matter what they look like.
Ridleyhas since respondedto the meme creators, saying she refuses to apologize for how she looks.
And we commend her for that.
This is progress, but we still have a long way to go.
Photo Credit: Getty / Gregg DeGuire
