Amy Schumer recently posted half naked photo of herself on instagram igniting a wide range of responses
from my social media friends. Said photo
features Amy wearing nothing but her underwear, a pair of heels, and an awkward
look on her face while drinking coffee. The thing that separates this photo
from a thousand other ‘Oops, you accidently caught me enjoying some Starbucks in
my Chonies’ photos happens to be her stomach, bearing a few fat rolls in plain
view.
I personally love Amy (/hate
her for living out my dream of making dick and fart jokes into a career), and I
thought the picture was stunning. Not only does she looks gorgeous, but I wish
her level of self esteem was taught right along with your ABCs. Personally, if
I were asked to take a picture while sitting in my underwear, I would call upon
the photo shop Gods and use a wide range of angles that would make MySpace
jealous.
While many called her brave
and congratulated her on her lack of fucks given others rated the photo a big
fat yawn claiming she is only very slightly overweight and not some new fat
girl role model picking up the pieces Lena Dunham dropped years ago.
Either way, the divide was
clear; some friends though she was promoting a realistic representation of
women while others thought she was a bit self-congratulatory on having a little
extra around her middle and being confident enough to show it off. (Then there
were my feminist friends who thought she should put some clothes on because a
woman is “so much more than her body,” but that’s a whole other blog, and I
have to work tomorrow…)
Basically, what from I
gathered, it seems Amy is not fat enough to be accepted by the fat girls, but
too fat to be accepted by the skinny ones. She is smack dab in this wonderful
range I like to call to home, which others may refer to as “average.”
This got me thinking, where
does that leave us normal girls?
We don’t get blogs or shares
on Facebook or any representation really. There are runway models and plus
sized models, but none in the middle ground. There are millions of us who walk
the perfect line of bacon cheeseburgers and skinny jeans, but no one is depicting
our slight muffin tops or ability to look 3 months pregnant for extended
trimesters.
Sure, there was a Dove
campaign years ago, but that came and went quicker than a Kardashian marriage.
Plus, those women were photographed from flattering angles in perfecting
lighting (not exactly the kind of picture you un-tag yourself from on Facebook
for sporting the fat arm)…
It seems all we get is a
constant state of confusion about whether to squeeze into the smaller size and
tell ourselves we will lose five pounds or buy the bigger size and pray we can
shrink it, but let’s be honest; we’ve been wishing that those five bastards away
since college, and the only things that ever shrink are the ones you go through
great lengths to keep from doing so.
I realize Rome wasn’t built
in a day so it’s going to be awhile before all the different size variations of
women are going to be represented across widespread media, but until the world
catches up, for the love of God can someone just start making some Smediums and
Marges?
