That same system keeps women at a disadvantage because we are judged and valued for our appearance more than men are, and held to even narrower ideals of thinness, youthfulness, and flawlessness that will always be just out of reach or at risk of slipping away. When you publicly or privately applaud people’s bodies for getting closer to aspirational ideals, you keep yourself and other people content with their divided, disempowered reality as long as they feel the fleeting reward of external validation, or discouraged and ashamed if they don’t.
