History of Feminism

I get uncomfortable in many "body ideal" conversations. I'm naturally pretty thin, and as an avid cyclist, that's not likely to change any time soon. Not that I look even slightly like a model (I'm too short and flat-chested!), but I've had people intimate (and even explicitly state) that I "shouldn't complain" about body ideal issues. Posts like yours that remind us all that those with the media-preferred body type aren't the enemy are invaluable.

On the matter of what is and is not a "healthy" body type, I think the biggest need for education is that there is no one body type that constitutes "healthy" to the exclusion of others. What works for one person could well be unhealthy for another. For example, British Olympic weightlifter Zoe Smith and US soccer superstar Alex Morgan have very different body types. Yet both are world-class athletes with access to cutting edge training programs and expert nutritionists. That both are very healthy indeed is utterly obvious...despite their very different bodies. Whether someone's body is unhealthy or not is something for her and her physician to determine.