Lauren Conrad’s switching up some of the terminology on her lifestyle website. The change comes in focus with her June theme, “Shape Up.” Lauren will share workout tips and healthy recipes galore. She wants to get fitter with her readers and focus on menu ideas (like Meatless Monday) and tips (like reading food labels). Lauren hopes that people will find these columns to be “inspiring.” As opposed to Goop-esque aspirational, I guess. The big change refers to a meeting with her editorial team. They all agreed to stop using words like “skinny” and “thin” to describe women’s bodies. Here’s Lauren’s reasoning.
“It’s that time of the year again… swimsuit season. I make an effort to eat healthy and exercise all year round. But when summer hits and the layers of clothing come off, fitness becomes even more of a priority for me. So with that in mind, our June theme here on LaurenConrad.com is going to be Shape Up. You can expect all the great fitness content you’ve come to know and love here on the site, including my LaurenConrad.com Bikini Boot Camp series. But, you’ll also notice one key difference…
When we’ve talked about getting in shape in the past, words like ‘skinny,’ ‘slim,’ and ‘thin’ have often come up. Starting this month, we’ll be banning any body shaming terms from the site, and replacing them with words like ‘fit’ ‘toned,’ and ‘healthy.’ We try do to this for the most part anyway, but now we’re making it official! The word skinny will now be reserved for skinny jeans. My editorial team and I had a long talk about it, and we want to make sure that the focus is on being fit as opposed to a number on the scale. Every body is created differently–and healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes.
[From Us Weekly]
Lauren wants to emphasize all body types and the importance of being fit. Some might think she’s acting oversensitive by banning certain words from her website. I know people are exhausted by the term “shaming,” but what Lauren says makes sense. She wants to promote fitness, not whether someone can fit into a certain size clothing.
Anyway, yes. The words “skinny” and “thin” are triggers for many fit people. Depending on the way someone slings those words in another person’s direction, they can carry a derogatory meaning. The words can imply that someone simply got lucky with their body type. People think they’re giving a compliment, but it doesn’t feel that way on the receiving end. Lauren wants to stop using all disparaging terms referring to body type on her website. Hopefully, this change will spark a trend.
Photos courtesy of WENN
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