Why people's appearance is their business
Especially during summer time you can and will see a lot of skin, many diverse body types in diverse stages of life. You don't have to like what you see, but:
You don't have the right to be "shielded" from seeing certain body types (the only caveat being if it's in the context of a crime that violates your bodily autonomy).
So ... fat people can wear summer clothes, old people can wear summer clothes, disabled or sick people can wear summer clothes, "ugly" people can wear them, too. Everyone is allowed to do so.
It is a huge sign of ignorance and privilege if you think you have the right to police how other people present themselves in public. It shows that you think your subjective tastes are what counts and what everyone else wants to see and you feel your petty wishes are more important than other people's rights.
It's a sign that you consider your personal preference for (subjectively) aesthetic bodies more important than other people's right to wear clothes that both fit their personal needs and meet meteorological demands, to walk freely in public and to decide how to live their life. It means that one group of people (the healthy, young and "beautiful") has more rights than a different group. Furthermore, it signifies that you accept that society agrees upon an arbitrary beauty standard that everyone has to live up to: 'cause there is an ideal of beauty created by our society, always, but everyday people prefer different traits when it comes to beauty. One person's "meh" is another person's "wow!". So why do people think that their preferences are somehow superior to everyone else's? Because they feel like the head of a silent majority?
Even worse: if you are only focused on achieving "beauty" and punish "uglyness", you don't challenge the mainstream opinion about what counts as beautiful and what doesn't. And who, as a consequence, has the privilege to be called beautiful and is treated accordingly and who isn't. It means to limit people's opportunities based on arbitrary characteristics. It means to accept –wittingly or unwittingly– that wide ranges of the population develop an unhealthy body image, that they hate themselves, develop eating disorders, their self-esteem decreases, and, basically, they cannot imagine that they are right just as they are.
Is it so difficult to see that it hurts the whole society when you negatively affect the life of others because of your own superficiality?
You don't have the right to be "shielded" from seeing certain body types (the only caveat being if it's in the context of a crime that violates your bodily autonomy).
So ... fat people can wear summer clothes, old people can wear summer clothes, disabled or sick people can wear summer clothes, "ugly" people can wear them, too. Everyone is allowed to do so.
It is a huge sign of ignorance and privilege if you think you have the right to police how other people present themselves in public. It shows that you think your subjective tastes are what counts and what everyone else wants to see and you feel your petty wishes are more important than other people's rights.
It's a sign that you consider your personal preference for (subjectively) aesthetic bodies more important than other people's right to wear clothes that both fit their personal needs and meet meteorological demands, to walk freely in public and to decide how to live their life. It means that one group of people (the healthy, young and "beautiful") has more rights than a different group. Furthermore, it signifies that you accept that society agrees upon an arbitrary beauty standard that everyone has to live up to: 'cause there is an ideal of beauty created by our society, always, but everyday people prefer different traits when it comes to beauty. One person's "meh" is another person's "wow!". So why do people think that their preferences are somehow superior to everyone else's? Because they feel like the head of a silent majority?
Even worse: if you are only focused on achieving "beauty" and punish "uglyness", you don't challenge the mainstream opinion about what counts as beautiful and what doesn't. And who, as a consequence, has the privilege to be called beautiful and is treated accordingly and who isn't. It means to limit people's opportunities based on arbitrary characteristics. It means to accept –wittingly or unwittingly– that wide ranges of the population develop an unhealthy body image, that they hate themselves, develop eating disorders, their self-esteem decreases, and, basically, they cannot imagine that they are right just as they are.
Is it so difficult to see that it hurts the whole society when you negatively affect the life of others because of your own superficiality?
Zweisatz - 6. Okt, 07:12
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