I don’t know how else to say it so I’ll just be direct: QUIT F***ING BODY SHAMING FEMALE ATHLETES! For those of you who don’t know, body shaming is defined as “the action or practice of criticizing/humiliating someone for their body shape or size.”
Readers have probably figured out I am a female columnist, former female athlete, coach, and I will have an athletic mindset for the rest of my life. In addition to all that, I am a female who has been perpetually plagued by body image issues. I’m not built with a small frame. I am not lean or skinny. I have never been that girl guys can just lift off her feet like a feather. That’s because I was born with hips, curves, breasts, and what I now happily accept as an athletic build. I was built strong and I enjoy increasing my strength.
But learning to accept my athletic body was a challenge. I was always made to feel (not by my family) that I should have been smaller. I was told I had man shoulders or a man arm; I looked at skinnier girls and longed to be like them. It took me a long time to learn to appreciate my body, its shape, and what it’s capable of.
Now I scroll through fitness feeds of everyday females and female professional athletes admiring their body shapes for their strength and size. I am inspired by the perseverance and discipline they utilize every day to keep their bodies in prime shape for competition.
So when I read in the news that athletes like Serena Williams and female Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman have been ridiculously body shamed for their muscular physique, I get pissed off.
Bottom line, body shaming female athletes at any level for being strong is unadulterated bullshit. And it’s a double standard that you can add to the long list of double standards that female athletes have had to endure.
Williams, a highly decorated professional tennis player, has been body shamed on Twitter in response to her sixth World Championship victory. People commented that, “she won because she looks like a man,” or “she is built like a man.” This isn’t the first time she has endured such stupid and hateful vitriol over her body.
First question: Why the hell does it matter what she looks like? Women not only have to look a certain way to be considered “sexy,” apparently we now have to look a certain way to win an athletic competition. Second question: If Williams were a man, would such comments even be made? No, they wouldn’t. And why is it that women are labeled as “looking like a man”? Because they happen to have muscles? I mean are men/people intimidated by a woman who chooses to be strong and athletic? It makes no damn sense, and I find it disgusting.
The double standard playing out here is that men can be muscular, but women can’t. Athletics should not be defined by gender, any more than it should be defined by race or religion. The fact that female athletes’ victories are being questioned because of how they look is disrespectful, insulting, and just plain ignorant.
Athletics is supposed to be about perseverance and strength. But while men are encouraged to be bigger, stronger, and faster to be successful in their sport, women are being demeaned. Being strong and muscular somehow detracts from people respecting females for their athletic abilities. Their successes are being judged based on how they look, not how they perform. These women don’t look like this for nothing, they are athletes, and that’s what being an athlete demands.
The message being conveyed is that women can’t use their muscles and athleticism to advance themselves in their sport. Women’s athletics should not be tied to body image, we get enough of that as women every time we try on damn clothes or pick up a magazine. Basically, the only message women are getting is that either we are too fat, too skinny, or too muscular. So … what the hell?
I am over the double standards and I am over people judging athletic women as “too muscular.” And I am quite over body image issues and shaming ruling over the lives of females who should have more important things to worry about.
For all my female athletes out there: Stand up, be proud of that strong body, and be thankful for what it does for you. Look at your muscles with love, show them off, and know that how you look has nothing to do with your sport or your corresponding success. What sets you apart is loving your body and pushing yourself to be the best athlete you can be. Lean, thick, strong, or toned, you are beautiful, you are strong, and you are badass.
But what do I know? I’m just a Benchwarmer, built strong.
Sports columnist Kristina Sewell is proud of her athletic build. Tell her your thoughts via Interim Managing Editor Joe Payne at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 19-26, 2017.