Books & Thighs

As summer is ending and all of us return to our daily routines, I take a last look at the summer images that innundated the social media again this year, only to draw a disturbing conclusion. We are living in 2023 when body shaming is supposed to have been banished, in the sense that it is no longer acceptable. Yet, a different type of shaming is still prevalent among the book groups, communities and platforms.

Much to my surprise, it just took a picure of a book resting on a pair of well-shaped, slim thighs to wreak havok among the members of a known facebook group. The comments were condescending and judgemental saying things like "this is a group about books and your thighs do not belong here nor is this image appropriate". The owner of the thighs was victimised by the serious intellectuals because she dared post something other than book covers. The argument got out of hand and was reproduced by news sites but the most weird thing for me is that something like that has happened before. In fact, it has happened in the same group a number of times in the past years. 

I also realised that even today the bookstagram community needs a summer 'challenge' with a specific hashtag as an allibi for posts of books and thighs to be considered legitimate. God forbid, what if someone posted their thighs in their normal feed? The comments would be filled with love but then an unfollow would follow. Everybody knows that instagram is more hypocritical than facebook.

After being hit by these realisations, I can't help but wonder; is it a coincidence that book social media do not like books and thighs together? how much longer will women who love books have to fit a standard stereotype? why do they need to look stern, wear glasses and no make-up in order to be taken seriously? why slim thighs combined with books are annoying? why chicken legs are appealing? is it possible that reading and eating are closely associated?

Unfortunately, it seems that despite our efforts as a species to evolve, embrace diversity and practice tolerance... we are not doing a very good job. The most distressing factor of this case is that the bullying and shaming in question come from people who read books and are willing to swear on the Bible that reading broadens their horizons and their minds.  

Keep in mind that reading does not need to be expensive. In Palaiovivliothiki-Karamouzas you can find cheap second hand books and save money while broadening your minds.

Carrie Crackshaw