The body shaming and misogyny in NCIS and Hawaii 5-0 fandoms is not okay.

[theeverdream]

ETA: A lot of what I say is non-specific; my comments to this post have a lot more detail, if you want it.

So apparently in the two active fandoms I'm in, body shaming has been deemed acceptable. Not just okay by an unspoken consensus among community members but actually permitted by mods. One of the comms has a rule against negativity towards actors and I was told that saying something is wrong with someone because of their weight doesn't qualify.

One of the mods of a comm I'm in is very anti-a woman character and it comes out very badly. There's supposed to be no bashing in that comm either. People in different comms say "you know who" or "her" when talking about someone and it is childish at best, misogynistic at worst.

It's getting ridiculous. Saying "her".. referring to characters in a derisive manner - I think that weakens slash fandom as a whole and that saddens me. If I had to choose which issue I was more passionate about, it would be the body shaming, due to my own experiences and the experiences of my friends and family. People with the same body types as certain actors are being told there is something wrong with them and they stand in front of their mirror and believe it.

This is not okay.

I don't really know what to do anymore - it's hard to try to make things better with no support from the people who could implement some changes. So here is what I can do right now. Have a graphic:





Link to it, pass it on... spread it around however you want to.

Look at it and believe it no matter if you're bigger or smaller.

Comments

[elayna88.livejournal.com]

I'm confused about the body shaming... are people dissing on the actresses or the fans? Or both?

Neither makes much sense to me. Admittedly, I think most actresses these days could stand to put on a few pounds, but they can't, because their profession demands the super skinny standard.

And actresses become successful because they *can* meet the Hollywood standard of beauty and thinness. To expect fans, normal people who like to watch TV and read /write fanfic for their hobbies, to be as gorgeous is just silly.

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

Actors/actresses and characters, not fans.

I don't know if you know that I'm referring to people criticizing of being too thin?

[elayna88.livejournal.com]

It was unclear to me what you were referring to. The last "we don't all look like this, that's okay" graphic seemed to be pointing toward people with overweight problems, but that didn't make sense with the references to actresses.

I think most actresses are too thin, I won't deny that. But I don't understand spending a lot of time dissing them in a community because of that fact. They're either among the genetically lucky, or they work freaking hard at exercise or diet control or whatever they need to do to maintain the shape that Hollywood demands these days. That determination is to their credit.

[theeverdream.livejournal.com]

The graphic saying "we" ... it's just because I have a person saying "hey look at so and so and the way she looks, I love the way she looks" and one person saying "oh wow, that's such an ego boost 'cause I look like that" and it has to work the other way. I find that absolutely tragic.

And the graphic isn't just meant to say larger is okay, but smaller too (maybe I should put plus/minus signs on it, IDK)

Yes there's that Hollywood standard of thinness and to be naturally thin may be considered lucky in some ways but there are people I know who have the body type of Grace Park and have been mockingly offered a sandwich. She did (does?) modelling for Maxim magazine and looks stunning. Take someone like her and walk them down the street, maybe someone who doesn't have a pretty face or a famous face or whatever, and people think there's something wrong. In fact, people have said there's something wrong with Grace Park too.

When you say "I think most actresses are too thin"... yes, Hollywood helps create a standard of "fat people need not apply" and that's definitely wrong. It would be fantastic to have a wider variety of shapes and sizes on our TVs! So I agree that most actresses are thin and I'd prefer that to not happen. But any of those individual actresses?

They're not too thin. They're just fine.