How about we just tag the people sharing the latest, nasty body-shaming meme.
You may have seen the “tag someone” memes float past your Facebook
timeline, resulting in laughs, ridicule and revulsion toward the person
in the image.
The memes feature images of overweight men and women, or people with
disabilities, and a name. “I’m looking for (name), can you tag him?”
There are several pages
dedicated to curating different versions of the meme.
Lizzie Velásquez was one of the faces going around in the trend.
Velásquez, 27, who is 5 feet 2 inches and weighs about 60 pounds, was
born with a rare congenital disease called neonatal progeroid syndrome
that prevents her from accumulating body fat, no matter how much she
eats.
Velásquez took to Instagram to voice her disappointment with the trend.
When Velásquez was 17, she found herself in a video calling her “the world’s ugliest woman.” Since then, she’s become an author and motivational speaker about her struggles with her self-image and bullying.
In her Instagram post, Velásquez says she’s not speaking out to be a “victim.”
“I do so as a reminder that the innocent people that are being put in
these memes are probably up just as late scrolling through Facebook and
feeling something that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.”
Other images that have appeared in the meme feature plus-size or obese
people naked, in ridiculous poses, bikinis or strange outfits, women
with body hair in places that are often shaven in mainstream culture, or
people with facial or dental malformations.
The posts are usually crudely sexual.
“No matter what we look like or what size we are, at the end of the day
we are all human. I ask that you keep that in mind the next time you
see a viral meme of a random stranger," Velásquez said in her post.
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