Body Confidence Week: "It's So Cool You Don't Care What People Think" And Other Insults

It's Body Confidence Week!

A whopping 16 million people in the UK "feel depressed" thanks to low body confidence. It's an issue that affects all genders and ethnicities. However, studies show that 10 million of the worst affected are women.

Lack of confidence can have terrible consequences for our health - 36 per cent of those surveyed said they skip the gym because of body anxiety - but also our sex lives and our careers.

This week (October 13-19) marks a national push, backed by the government, to challenge damaging body stereotypes and promote greater positivity about different shapes and sizes.

Some People Just Need To Shhh

Among the top things that women hate to be told, according to a popular Reddit thread, the backhanded compliments: "I think it's so cool that you don't care about how you look," or, "It's so brave to not care what other people think," rank pretty highly.

The implication that you "don't care" if you're not conforming to their notion of body standard norms or fashion trends is just plain insulting.

If you haven't got anything nice to say...

Let's Celebrate

Obviously, there is something to be said for encouraging a healthy attiude towards body mass - we all know obesity increases your risk of heart disease in massive increments, the heavier you are - but if negative stereotyping is keeping people OUT of the gym, then something definitely needs to change.

Without encouraging unhealthiness, there are ways that we can adjust the way we talk about and portray body size, in order to allow people to feel comfortable in their own skin.

With this in mind, we've collected a few of the funny, clever, humbling and interesting approaches to bodies and body image that have recently surfaced in the media.

THIGH Gap Jeans, Anyone?

Most recently, you might have caught wind of this brilliant sketch, a parody by JustBoobs, a bunch of American comediennes who make sketches about awkward or infuriating cultural trends.

Free thigh-gap with your new jeans purchase anyone?

Considering the national Be Real Campaign, in response to the Body Confidence movement in the UK, is awarding prizes to publications who can better depict body diversity on their pages, this

"Fat Girls Do Yoga Too"

We first came across Dianne Bondy in an interview that she did with The Guardian, in which she explained "Bigger men and women get put off when they see half [their exercise] class has an eating disorder, and the rest are gymnasts."

Bondy, who does yoga workshops and online webcasts, reckons it's pretty important that we alter our perspective about what a normal person looks like exercising.

"I have seen bigger bodies do the most incredible things," she said in the interview.

Katie Hopkins Does Something Good?

Okay, okay, she's the woman we all love to hate, but recently her plan to fat shame the nation's obese by showing how easy it is to gain and lose half your body weight has interestingly backfired, causing her to be *shock, horror* nice, and even empathic about what it feels like to be uncomfortable in your own skin.

Katie Hopkins wowed the media by sticking to her guns and putting on a significant amount of weight in a short space of time, to draw attention to how easy it was to lose it again.

However, in a surprising turn of events, her weight gain appears to have made her more sympathetic.

On a showing of The Morning, Katie said “I found since I got bigger and [to Christina] I appreciate we’re different sizes, but it’s a similar process, I used to say ‘for goodness sake, put your trainers on and go for a run!’ but actually, sometimes you find you get to the front door [and you can’t leave the house].”

“I only put on half my body weight… but I understand this thing about getting to the front door and thinking people are going to call you names," she concluded.

What a MASSIVE change of heart considering she usually spouts the likes of the below:

Wow.

Truly Inspriational

Then there are the amazing people who overcome incredible adversity - not just obesity - to train and exercise and feel body confident:

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[Jennifer Lawrence: It Was A Sex Crime; I Have Nothing To Apologise For]

So, how will you contribute to changing attitudes towards the human body? Will it be in the way you teach your children, how you speak to your husband or even, how you look at yourself?

Let us know in the comments!