Learning to Love Your Body

Every single day I have conversations with various women in my life where the topic of weight comes up. It may be something as innocent as "I feel bloated," but weight is a constant in our daily dialogue. While this has always been something I have had issues with today I actually took a moment to think about it.

We all know that our society is poison for women and their self-esteem. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements, movies, actresses, models, etc. all telling us how we should look. I would hope that all women know that what you see on those billboards or on the pages of magazines are edited photos. No one looks like that, if they did they would hire those women because they would save a hell of a lot of time and money on retouches. 

Every now and then the issue of women's body images reached the mainstream, national conversation (like we saw recently with the 'Am I Ugly' videos, if you missed out here is my blog on the topic), but it should be rectified not just discussed. We need real action and it cannot wait because every day it is getting worse.

I can prove that it is. Think about pregnancy. Now I have never experienced it but I spoke to a good friend of mine, Lisa, who is pregnant with her first baby (we can't wait to meet you Grayson!) about being pregnant and her body image. Jessica Simpson's cover of Elle Magazine in which she is completely naked just came out and I wanted to hear her thoughts on it. She first explained to me that she would never do something like that, but that aside she did not see a reason to hide it. This would be all well and good if the photo was genuine and not some photo shopped creation to further humiliate and shame women into hating their bodies.

Here is the cover:

Photo credit: Fashion Indie.

Here is her at an interview on the Ellen DeGeneres Show:

Photo credit: Zap2It.

Now call me crazy but there is no way her body changed that much. I am not insulting the real her (the one in the picture with Ellen) I am just baffled as to why she doesn't embrace her body. Pregnancy is beautiful and it is almost worse to allow your photo to be altered when you are pregnant. You are turning something so precious and amazing into something shameful.

Lisa's thoughts were to embrace your reality and not succumb to the way you think you should be perceived. I couldn't agree with her more. I remember when Jessica Simpson first came on to the music scene she was marketing herself as a wholesome singer who wanted to be a good role model to young girls. Correct me if I am wrong Jessica, but what kind of example do you set now?