Among the 9,610,000 results, I noticed Christina Hendricks, Beyonce, Adele, Gabourey Sidibe, America Ferrera, Tyra Banks, Queen Latifah, Kate Upton, Marilyn Monroe, and Sofia Vergara.
Doing a search for "curvy women" gave me somewhat similar results, where I saw a lot of different body shapes.
(I know Miranda Kerr is a "celebrity" but I added her in because the
pictures of the other thin women in the results were too small to use.)
I also saw two pictures that I thought were kind of offensive. I get the feeling that these were created by men, who wanted "fat" girls to stop using the term curvy to describe themselves.
So apparently, according to the first picture, I'm a dumb feminist, because I believe that both thin and overweight women can have curves. And according to the second picture, a woman with a little extra tummy chub is fat. Since when did that happen?
Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, what exactly is curvy? Both google searches provided me with a multitude of different answers. I see skinny, and I see chubby, and I see overweight. So what's what? One entry on UrbanDictionary said it's a "euphemism for 'fat' or 'chubby.'" So then why is it that I see thin women as part of my google search? Who determines what curvy means?
I guess it ultimately comes down to personal ideas about weight, and body positivity, and such. Most women are curvy, in the sense that they have breasts, a butt, and their hips are wider than their waist. So I can see why there are many google image results showing me all different kind of women's bodies. But there are some people who strictly believe that curvy is a reserved word for bigger girls (lookin' at you, dumb feminists!), whereas others believe it is just used to describe the shape of a woman's body, regardless of size.
Being a bigger girl myself, I guess I'm a bit biased and prefer that the word is used towards bigger girls. However, I am fully aware that even thin women have curves. I totally get it. I tend to find that magazines and tv and movies describe women with a small waist and a big butt and/or boobs to be curvy. I disagree. Would I call Miranda Kerr curvy? Probably not. She has curves, but she isn't curvy (to me at least). Kim Kardashian? Nah. She has a bangin' body, with a big butt and huge boobs, and definitely has curves, but that's that. Not curvy, in my opinion. Gabourey Sidibe, curvy? Nope. Although she's overweight, I think she's past the point of curviness. She's beautiful regardless, but not so much curvy as she is bodacious. Curvy, to me, is embodied in two pictures above: the one of the woman in the red dress, and the other of the woman in the bathing suit with a sarong. NOW THAT'S CURVY. Look at those hips, gurrrrl. Yaaaassss!! But I feel like I should reiterate here that I do recognize that most women have a curvature to their bodies. It's only natural. We were biologically made to have more lumps and bumps and wider hips and all that jazz. Women have curves. But not all women are curvy-- to me.
It's a little difficult to try and define my own personal definition of curvy without offending anyone in the process. Regardless of whether you fall into my definition of curvy, or a "dumb feminist's", or Cosmopolitan's (they use the term to describe J.Lo and Kim K), you're still beautiful. If you're a woman reading this, it's probably safe to assume that you have curves. Are you curvy? Who knows. Not me. But I think it's open to interpretation. So you decide how you feel about your curves, and whether or not you will embrace them or hate them (please choose the former).
I'm curious to know what curvy means to you, let me know! (:
All of the women are curvy in those pics!
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