I confess. When I
have to run out and walk the dog I’ll grab whatever is closest to the door. The
results aren’t pretty. I may be in my husband’s flip flops or my 12 year olds
sweatshirt. Despite the fact that I am the one leaving the house at the
undesirable hour or in inclement weather, nobody in the family likes me wearing
their stuff. “Why did you have to wear my sweatshirt mom?” I wanted to put that
out there, to be fair, after I heard that Bethenny Frankel Instagrammed a photo
of herself in her 4 year olds pajamas. As if the unfortunate outfit wasn’t
enough the caption read “ think we’re ready to share clothes yet?”
I am open minded, I have no issue with the word skinny or skinniness.
I even have fond memories of an impressive hello kitty collection (in second
grade) but to answer Bethenny’s rhetorical and ridiculous question. No.
Bethenny it’s not ok to share clothing with a pre-k child. And even when your
child is 10 or 12 or 16 it is usually the child that borrows from the parent….unless
you’re going to walk the dog. Wait, Bethenny you have a dog. Maybe you can try
on her coat and post a picture for us to see.
What do you think about this? Dress up or disaster?
I think that she clearly purposely put on her daughter's clothes to see if she could fit into something so tiny, just to post a picture of herself in toddler-sized clothing. It's just so she can say to the rest of us that she's thinner than all of us. Certainly a disaster but the more we talk about it, the more we encourage behavior like this.
ReplyDeleteI'm not as thin as she is and I'm glad. I won't say I don't get a little thrill once in a while if I can still fit into a dress from college or something, but I have never wanted to fit into my niece's clothing. (I have an 8 year old son so putting on his smelly clothes is definitely not appealing!)
Body shaming is inappropriate no matter what size the individual is. Let's not perpetuate the broader issue at hand: judging people's bodies and shaming them for being not "(fill in the blank) enough." Perhaps introspection is a more desirable and productive activity, rather than picking a part another woman's clothes and size?
ReplyDeleteWhoa, whoa MR. I am not judging Bethenny's body, I am judging her judgement (or lack thereof). I believe in introspective. I also believe in calling someone on putting questionable/dangerous images out there. And you mention a "woman's" size, did you read in the post where she was wearing a 4T?
ReplyDeleteI hear you Jen, your dress or clothes from long ago- thrilling but your toddler's ick. And yes, totally a "look at me" post and I/we look and in that way she wins (though hard to call it that in a hello kitty nighty).
ReplyDeleteI can't help thinking that clothing sizes are also adjusting to the fact that children are getting bigger... Bethenny must be really slim, but her daughter's gown has to be REALLY big... To me, that is even scarier than Bethenny's narcissism and insecurities.
ReplyDeleteI guess I just don't feel this is even worth giving any energy to. We aren't talking about health. Social media has given lots of people an avenue for posting photos/content which feed their own narcissism and insecurities, but I think we only feed this behaviour by giving it any sort of notice. Yes, I agree there is a population out there that is seeing this and is eating it up literally thinking that they need to be skinnier or prettier and to a degree, there is some benefit in calling it out. But just like the annoying sibling that picked on you when you were young, give them no fuel and they have nothing.
ReplyDeleteAnd part of me agrees with you Jessica. I even posted on Facebook "I really should have better things to do than write about this" but I still wrote about this. I do think there's a value in saying this person with millions who "follow" her is doing something that's not ok. The Skinnygirl CEO semi bragging for being size toddler-4 deserves a call out IMO.
ReplyDeleteI don't know in this case Johanne, this is her daughter's nightgown she's wearing as a shirt. Are clothes for four year olds really oversized?
ReplyDeleteThis pic has become really popular on "thinspiration" sites. No adult woman should aspire to be the size of a 4 year old, even big american 4 year olds. And I'm not body-shaming, but judgement shaming. She understands that she holds herself as a model of "skinny girl" obviously. But this is dangerous behavior.
ReplyDeleteI do see your point and I suppose I do value knowing this is happening out there because I follow you and I am not one of the millions (really?) who follow her. I guess I did the same thing I was admonishing when I commented on your post. Thanks for keeping it real in health. :)
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, Bethenny has never struck me as healthy. Her image, body language and attitude has never given me the impression that I would like health advise from her. Therefore I am not shocked that she is posting this image to the world, to show off her skinniness in an unhealthy way. And I'm a little scared about the body imagine issues on that 4 year old girl. Keep that at home, off the internet!
ReplyDeleteGabby, as if body image issues are the only issues this 4 year old child will face. Right?
ReplyDeleteThere's definitely a "look at me! look at me!" factor, but Bethany was also part of Housewives of NY, which, let's face it, is all about "look at me". She looks silly and it can be termed an "unfortunate mistake". And expected behavior for any reality TV star. Definitely does not deserve any of the attention it's getting in mainstream media (slow news week I guess).
ReplyDeleteMy "huh" moment comes from what you allude to above - the idea of "thin-shaming" - that being skinny (thin, fit, in shape, whatever) is not something anyone should "flaunt" because it "makes people feel bad", "sets a bad example for girls" or "she's a show-off".
It's almost a double standard - "fat shaming" is obviously incredibly inappropriate and a community will quickly call it out. But "thin-shaming" seems to be a new trend - not just in the digital space, but in actual face2face scenarios.
So while I totally get the commentary around Bethany's lack of judgement, I agree with you that the discussion should not be centered on her "thinness".
We should all ignore her but we can't, what is that Jen? And I don't see this as thin-shaming. I am the first person to say thin/ healthy thin is fine and there's nothing wrong with it BUT there's something so sad and crazy about wanting to be the size of a nursery schooler- almost perverse. I mean what's next "what size baby diaper are you?"
ReplyDelete