The Gist:

• Body shaming has wreaked havoc on folks of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities over the years.
• The body positivity movement has tended to focus on people of larger sizes and many voices aren’t heard.
• The movement should be inclusive and support people of all sizes and ethnicities.

It’s no secret that the emergence of social media has played a role in how detrimental body shaming can be. In the early 2000s, sites like Facebook and Twitter — birthed in 2004 and 2006, respectively — showed how easy it is for folks to create anonymous identities and wreak havoc on folks of all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities. While we all know that no one is safe from being body shamed, there has always been a focus on how fat people are affected.

Truth be told, if we look at most of the leaders and voices in the body positivity movement, many of these people are of larger sizes. While it’s great to see these people speak up for themselves and individuals who look like them, it has caused the body positivity movement to feel like a skinny, white woman’s mission, as opposed to an inclusive one. It’s time to wake up and smell the coffee.

If you take a scroll through social media — from Instagram to TikTok — body positivity content typically has a white face. Although there are plenty of Black women who champion the movement, their voices are often unheard.

Of course, there are some women, from the likes of Lizzo to influencer Simone Mariposa, who use their platforms to make their voices heard. However, I’d be remiss not to address that Black women of smaller sizes tend to be MIA as far as the topic is concerned.

By description, body positivity is understood to be a social movement that champions the respect of all bodies — skinny to fat — being deemed acceptable despite societal standards that say otherwise. With that in mind, there is no reason why smaller-sized Black women are not part of the conversation on a larger scale.

So many women who fit this demographic have often been open about their struggles with body image over the years, including rapper Coi Leray. Ever since the femcee stepped on the scene, she has had to deal with harsh criticisms about her small frame.

“I’ve dealt with the body shaming situation, honestly, my whole career,” Coi says to Eddie Francis for Apple Music 1’s The Plug Radio. Shout out to all the slim women out there. I feel like I actually paved the way in the music industry for a slim woman to just finally be accepted, honestly, after a very long time.”

Truth be told, Coi’s plight with body shaming is known due to her celebrity status, but there are everyday women like Coi who deal with the same struggle that’s overlooked regarding the promotion of the body positivity movement.

Truth be told, only time will tell. However, it’s important to reiterate that bodies come in various shapes and sizes. And while folks who consider themselves full-figured often deal with discrimination and harsh criticism, it’s a similar experience for folks on the other side and in between.

Social media has shined a light on the fact that a woman can have what many consider to be a desirable body and still be ridiculed. For example, Megan Thee Stallion often receives hate for being a tall woman with small hips, Lizzo is consistently dragged for being fat, Coi is criticized for not opting for a BBL or breast implants, and Nicki Minaj is body-shamed for gaining a few pounds. The list goes on.

With that in mind, it’s time for folks in the body positivity space to come together to praise all bodies. As the saying goes, I am my sister’s keeper. It’s time to uplift and celebrate each other for our differences and the beauty in it.

You should always assume that while you’re shopping at a major retailer that you’re being watched. Heck, even local businesses have security cameras installed in their establishments, which has helped them catch thieves.

But major retailers spend a lot of money on loss prevention every single year. Take Walmart for example the global chain recently plopped down over half a billion dollars to ensure that folks aren’t burgling from its stores.

Granted, a lot of the loss prevention solutions aren’t as complex as the Sam Walton established brand, which incorporates a series of A.I. cameras and weighted self-service checkout stations. And of course, there are camera systems manned by folks who are paid to ensure that big-ticket items aren’t being lifted out of the respective locations where they work.

Apparently, some of these loss prevention set-ups are a bit more involved than others, like this “amphitheater” of sorts that a TikToker showed off in a now-viral clip at a Target location that gives whoever is in the room a Skybox view of the entire store so they not only presumably have live video monitoring feeds of the location, but an actual grand view of the retailer’s layout.

Santi, who posts under the handle @santi._s gave viewers a sneak peek into what many are speculating is a part of Target’s loss prevention process, after spilling the beans on the suspicious look elevated mirrors that can be found in some locations.

At the onset of the now-viral clip, she shows the mirrors and then we see her head through some doors in the back of the store. Through this pathway, Santi ends up at a stairwell, which she traverses to ultimately end up directly behind the mirrors.

As it turns out, they’re the kind of mirrors you’d recognize from any police movie interrogation scene. The two-way glass allows whoever’s inside the box to covertly snoop on anyone who is ambling about the store while all we see are our own mugs staring back at us.

A text overly on the clip simply reads: “If you see mirrors like this in a Target they are watching you” along with a caption, “They really do be watching us from above.”

It’s worth mentioning, however, that there actually weren’t any employees manning the “spy station” while Santi was recording, so the room may only be in use during high-volume shopping times or when a specific situation needs to be monitored by staff.

And while the prevailing belief is that the rooms are being used to watch potential shoplifters, or to spy on employees in the store to make sure that they’re doing their jobs, there were many who thought that since there was no one up there during the time of Santi’s filming, that those particular spaces are just offices that aren’t in use anymore.

Instead of knocking them all down, the construction team responsible for putting the Target together opted to just put up some mirrors in an attempt to try and make things more aesthetically pleasing. However, why would there be two-way mirrors, and not just some key art showing the Target dog or other imagery/promotional materials for the store?

Other people chimed in and said these are simply offices for the store’s managers, and the reason why they’re empty is that they’re probably on the floor assisting customers or other members of the location’s team.

According to folks in the comments section, they’ve said that other retailers, like CVS and supermarkets do the same thing. The two-way mirrors are there for visibility, but also offer some privacy for employees who are on break.

Being a manager who has been tasked with “running a tight ship” can often be a daunting and thankless task. Sure, you receive a pay bump that comes with greater responsibilities, but oftentimes you can be put in a position where the employees who work under your supervision can resent you, and your workplace superiors will often give you an inordinate amount of work to do.

You’re put in a position where you’re receiving flak from both sides, which can lead to some pretty high-stress scenarios. And while there are some bosses workers absolutely adore, there are others who are doing whatever they can to make a company profitable and allow that to cloud their judgment when it comes to enforcing certain policies.

And then there are those who act in ways that leave people wondering just how in the world they were ever even considered for a promotional experience in the first place. Like this encounter, a TikTok user had with her boss that many people are saying was entirely out of line and possibly illegal.

TikToker Abby Gebo, who posts under the handle @thegebos, uploaded a now-viral clip about an interaction she had with her boss regarding her insulin medication. She captioned the video with the following: “diabetic storytime.”

Abby said that her manager had looked through her backpack for whatever reason and found a syringe in there. Maybe because he was watching a lot of The Wire or just saw Trainspotting, but he instantly assumed that the syringes were being used for intravenous recreational drug use.

Abby says that her manager spoke to a coworker about the backpack, stating that he was going to look into the needles further. When he confronted Abby about the bag, she said that he told her he “really expected better from her.”

The statement left the TikToker bewildered.

Then her manager asked her outright if she was doing drugs. “Do I look like I’m doing drugs?” Abby rejoined. She went on to remind her boss that she was diabetic, a fact about her that Abby says he was already aware of.

He didn’t immediately accept that explanation, however, stating that his own niece was a diabetic and never used needles, just pumps in order to give herself insulin.

“OK um, I can’t wait to sue you, but some people can’t afford pumps and have to use like vials and syringes,” Abby retorts in her video.

The TikTok user’s interactions with her manager only got worse from there when he demanded that she prove to him she was using insulin. She noted to her viewers on the social media platform that even though she didn’t have to offer up proof of her medical condition, she did so anyway, presenting her vials of insulin to him.

“You’re lucky, but I’m watching you,” Abby says her boss told her, adding that he was ensuring that none of the staff under his employ were abusing recreational drugs.

Abby quit her job that very day and many commenters who responded to her TikTok mentioned that it was illegal for her boss to not only look through her stuff, but question her about her medical condition.

In fact, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, it’s illegal for any employer to discriminate against a worker for having a disability or medical condition. Many who saw Abby’s video believe that if what she’s saying is true then her manager was in direct violation of this law, which could fall under a Federal offense.