As far as I’m aware, there is no irrefutable evidence to suggest that fat women cannot be beautiful. So why, pray tell, do so many women put one another down instead of building each other up? Lord knows that women receive enough stick from those who are favoured in society (NB. men) for not having the most desirable figure, or most flawless skin, or the most gleaming hair – so why don’t we stick together and make a stand instead of turning against one another? I may upset some people here, but thin privilege is a “thing”. Please, please don’t get me wrong, I support body love and body positivity for all bodies, no matter your shape or size and wholly believe that you should rejoice in the body that you’re given. But let’s face it; the world is designed around and for slimmer people – the size of seats on a plane, doorways, barriers, even foodstuffs. But one thing that isn’t designed solely for slim people, is beauty. Fat women can dip their toes in this pool too you know, and occasionally some even like to submerge their whole body.

Society has sanctioned beauty as being for slim people only, but this is not the case. Fat girls can be stunning too, even goddesses if they want to be! But in recent times, if a fat person is deemed beautiful or pretty, it is expected that they should feel honoured to have this gift bestowed upon them. But listen up people – slimness is not a prerequisite to beauty. As a young, fat woman, I’ve become so sick of being told “but you’ve got such a pretty face…” in a voice entrenched with pity and with an ‘understanding’ eyebrow raise to boot. But I am not going to apologise because someone else sees my size as a hindrance to my ‘pretty face’ – just because someone believes that attention to your pretty face is needed to take the attention away from your fat body, doesn’t mean that you should let it. In spite of what anyone says, you can be fat and beautiful.

Society has arrived at the conclusion that to be considered beautiful, women have to have the fundamental attribute of being slim and, coincidentally, it is viewed as a prized quality. But that’s hardly conducive to a healthy mind-set, is it? So obsessed are we with Instagramming, with cropping and filtering, with social popularity that women are expected to strive to achieve society’s accepted aesthetic for beauty. It has been reported recently that women would rather suffer a deadly fate than be considered fat, but is being fat really the worst thing that someone could be?

Our world is rapidly evolving and beauty ideals along with it. There are a tremendous number of fat women pivoting on their tiptoes and rejecting beauty standards and society needs to take notice – not only this, but other women need to take notice too. Women need to rid themselves of the negative jibes that they direct at other women, comments reflecting on the fashion choices of others need to end, bullying needs to be banished, the Queen Bee needs to be overthrown and re-established as an equal. Beauty is for everyone, it is not reserved purely for the slim elite.