If you haven’t rolled your eyes at a mainstream news outlets’ list of body positive icons, then consider yourself lucky that you missed the frustration of seeing one of these stories come across your feed.
Every few weeks it seems like another one pops up and not only are the majority of these icons above a size 8, but these lists usually include just one woman of color or sometimes none at all. I am so in favor of drawing attention to women who are challenging beauty standards but not if that list features women who all look the same.
It all begs the question:
Is a list like that actually challenging beauty standards or is it simply continuing to reinforce them?
In the press, the body positive conversation is being dominated by smaller white voices. Why does Amy Schumer saying she’s not plus size get covered by almost every news outlet while most remained silent on Gabby Sidibe’s sex scene on national TV?
And when only certain bodies and voices are celebrated, this does a huge disservice to the community of individuals who worked so hard to get us here.
When Marie approached me to write this piece, we both agreed that a list focused specifically on women of color for…
