Siera Bearchell represented Canada in the Miss Universe Pageant. A reporter at a media event recent asked her “How does it feel to be so much… larger than the other delegates?”
She has been publicizing the fat shaming that she receives, and recently posted “I have a vision to redefine beauty. I have a vision in which women around the world will recognize that true beauty, validation and self-worth start from within.”
I applaud her for what she’s saying and doing (and for not going with the extremely damaging “I’m not fat” defense.) And I encourage her to really mean it by including every body in her work. Too often when people talk about body positivity or redefining beauty, they have limitations and exclusions in the fine print – only certain skin colors, only certain shapes, only certain sizes. If we are redefining beauty then our redefinition has to include and center the voices of:
- People of Color
- Fat people (with absolutely no limits or caveats about size or “health”)
- Trans and non-binary people
- Disabled people/people with disabilities
- Non “hourglass” bodies
- People who don’t meet current cultural stereotypes of attractiveness
- People who don’t care about (or can’t afford) clothes that are “in fashion”
- People who don’t want to (or can’t afford to) wear makeup
- People who live at the intersections of these identities
We need to be done with concepts about “body positivity” and “beauty” that come with a bunch of exclusions and limitations (based on things like racism, healthism, ableism and sizeism, and classism.) I hope that Siera Bearchell will be part of the no fine print movement that we need to be.
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