PROFITING ON THE SHAME OF WOMEN

PROFITING ON THE SHAME OF WOMEN

It was a group of women
So supportive
So uplifting
Cheering each other on in our lives and our work

And then she stood to introduce her amazing self
And the shame attack started

It started subtly with a friendly announcement of a new supplement she was selling
And then it got more specific

Weight loss

Her product was weight loss

On the surface it might not seem that her esthetically packaged pills held such pain

But they did

Because every time she stood up in her slim body steeped in thin-privilege and said weight loss

She was saying to more than half the room…

You are not OK as you are
You are flawed
There is an answer to all your woes
Life will be all better when you get thinner

In her cheerful demeanor she was saying

YOU NEED FIXING

YOU, as the size you are
In the BODY you are in
is UNACCEPTABLE

And I have the ultimate answer

Be thin

I have the magic pill

I watched her shame brilliant, beautiful women who don’t need any fixing.
I watched women wilt and look at their bellies in disgust and shame.

Here’s what I wished I had said to her…

You are making money on the back of women’s shame

Your diet pills and quick fixes feed the sickness that we aren’t good enough as we are.

Please open your eyes to your own thin-privilege.
Your collusion is diminishing women’s power.

Please stop selling the concept that we don’t have the answer inside.

I wish I had told her that she was ENOUGH as she is and to please stop telling other women that they are less than.

~ Nina Manolson