Double Standards?

I haven't done a post in a loooooong while...
I've been doing a lot of thinking.

About the whole thing about being too skinny and thin being in and how real women should be more embraced in society today is bothering me. While it's wonderful that people are cluing in to the fact that not everyone is the same, we're seeing lots of people not putting pity on larger women, but the smaller ones.

Not everyone in the world is the same, as previously stated, and that means that there are going to be some people that are just naturally skinny. Real women look skinny, they look fat, they look tall or short, and everything in between. So next time there's a skinny girl in an ad, it's not right to just assume that the girl is at fault, it's the advertiser. The issue, as shown here, is not the body type of the person featured, but why they were featured and what the advertiser wants to do.

On another note...
I've been thinking about feminism and how there are also standards there. As a young feminist I feel that not only am I prone to a bit more sexism for being open about it (I once talked about it in a gifted class and later that evening a classmate sent me a facebook invitation to a group called "Feminism belongs in the kitchen") but also ageism. I haven't really done research on feminist icons and when I start a discussion on a forum in places like Gaia Online I'm told that I'm not a real feminist and that I'm just looking for somewhere to belong. That's a nice example of ageism, I believe and I'm not liking it.

Another standard that I believe is lingering a bit (but usually stems from the outside world's misconceptions) is that a feminist must be queer/straight and single-not-looking and not Christian. I'm the opposite of those things. I have a boyfriend who I love very much, and I consider myself to be Catholic--just not terribly religious. And yet, I feel as if people are staring me down for being something common, something that "can't understand" and something that knows nothing about what they're saying. Last time I checked, feminism was supposed to be about making choices, right? So if one chooses to take their husband's last name, should they get married, it's their choice, right?

/rant. :)

These people disgust me.

So today, while I was looking back on some posts in the Body Politics category of the Shameless Blog, I stumbled upon one post that I had read but not commented on. It was about Thomas Beatie, a trans man from Oregon who was carrying his child for his wife. However there was a quote from the couple about how badly they had been treated. People like doctors, receptionists and the likes. These people disgust me. These are the people who we are supposed to trust our lives with. The same people who smile at a child for comfort when the child is going through hell. And just because they don't agree with what Mr. Beatie and his wife are doing they basically make a mockery of the both of them.

Ah, this reminds me of a previous post. In the same class yesterday, this issue came up and being the right-winger that she is, she said:

"That is absolutely disgusting."

After which I wanted to punch her in the face. Or slap her. Something to get it inside her head that she is a hypocrite. Catholicism in itself is contradictory. Hell, all denominations are contradictory. This whole love everyone as you would love yourself thing is getting to me because of a lot of things. If we are to practice the golden rule then we mustn't call people who are in unfamiliar situations "disgusting" because that is disrespect for human life. Saying that people who under the umbrella term of queer (thanks, Miss Nomered) are disgusting is disgusting in itself.

The strange thing was, in all the topics that we argued on, no one wanted to argue that Mr. Beatie and his wife's situation was not disgusting at all.

But I feel like a bit of a hypocrite for not speaking up, myself. Okay, so I'm one person, but maybe I would have been able to change someone's mind?