Yep, it’s going to be one of those articles. One of those pieces that will have you hitting the comment button quicker than you thought any human being could possibly move, and to that I say, lets make like Tom Tilley and #letstalk. The search for Australia’s most ordinary rig, is an annual competition run by budgy smuggler searching for, well, Australia’s most ordinary rig. A quote from the event organiser’s taken from an interview with the Triple J breakfast team reads; ‘While this event seems like a complete piss take, we are aiming to send the message that it’s ok not to be a completely shredded Instagram blogger’.
Firstly, this sentence is something I for one wholeheartedly agree with. It is ok to not look like an Instagram blogger. No one looks like an Instagram blogger. Even the Instagram bloggers don’t look like Instagram bloggers. It is ok for you to go to the beach wearing what makes you feel comfortable and it isn’t anyone else’s right to make you feel any less than the amazing person that you are. This point applies to all genders by the way, and that is pretty much the whole point of this piece.
I am not disputing the heart and soul behind the award/huge marketing campaign for budgy smugglers (guys we live in a capitalist society, it’s all a marketing campaign but that’s another story for another time). But what I am doing is posing a question. Why do we celebrate the ‘ordinary’ (male) rig, only to turn around and ask women if they are beach body ready?
I just can’t help but point out the ‘uge double standards, in fact I think it’s really important to do just that. I literally shudder at the thought of the comments which would be slung at the various competitors if someone decided to host a female version of the competition. Am I just a little bit bitter and worn down in thinking that perhaps instead of words of praise and positive banter, maybe things might take a bit of a turn for the nasty, derogatory and just down right hurtful? (Cough fat shaming cough).
If you think I am stretching the truth a little, and putting what some would call my angry feminist glasses on (1. I’m not angry and 2. I kind of think equality is pretty important don’t you? Well that’s kind of what feminism is), and looking for any excuse to slam a worthy cause and smother any and all positivity in the world, this is not the case. Not at all. In fact quite the opposite. If you spend even two-seconds on google, Facebook or Instagram, you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about. The Dad-bod is celebrated, awarded, commended, congratulated even, whereas women are often showered with negative connotations surrounding their weight. Mummy’s are meant to be yummy, although women may be taught to love their curves they are also encouraged to ‘tighten their stomach,’ all of which kind of really sucks self esteem wise, for everyone involved. For example, remember the idiot who decided to describe to Taylor Swift as thick? Yeahhhh.
We should be celebrating every body, purely because maybe if we all gave being motivating and positive a crack, the world would be a much better place. It’s a post Trump world after all…
