Celebrating Ourselves
Ashley recently wrote a post about the swimsuit models used at Women’s Health, and how they are “supposed” to reflect a real woman’s body, but they only do that if you happen to be a size zero with a very delicate shape and little to no flaws. To me, this accurately demonstrates the way that magazines today present women. We are told to feel confident about our bodies, and love ourselves, and then offered these models to show off clothing that we’re supposed to be able to wear, even though they have bodies that many of us can only dream of having (or not dream of having. I don’t think that many of those girls would be very useful in the event of a zombie attack or similar. Where’s the muscle, girls? Let’s celebrate some real strength!).
This is why I was excited to see that Fitness magazine has a Body Confidence page, in which you can proudly tell the world what you love about your body. They’ve also got a brief slide show of women proclaiming their love for their flaws– I think that that’s fantastic.
It’s a Friday, and that means that we should all be getting ready for a lovely weekend of relaxation and happy times. So let’s start it off with some positive thinking! I want to hear what you love about yourself, and/or something that you usually view negatively about yourself and how you’ve managed to shift it into a more positive light.
For example: I have one leg shorter than the other. This means that shoe shopping can be very frustrating for me, as I have to search for a very specific type of shoe to fit in a lift on the bottom of the shoe. But! It also means that I get to spend a lot of time shopping for shoes, and all of my shoes need to be expensive (hehehe) and of the very best quality. And I do love a good shoe shopping trip!
I’m also a very little person, but I like that because when I used to play field hockey, the other team wouldn’t even see me coming so I was very good at stealing the ball away from them without them noticing (they were all tall enough to be looking right over the top of my head). Also, (because I’m all about the shoe love today, apparently), it means that I can wear high heels all the time if I want to be of an almost-average height!
Let’s get some positive thoughts and optimistic thinking going here. It’s all about your mindset!
What a GREAT way to start the weekend! I do like that section in Fitness- thanks for pointing it out. Normally I don’t like the Fitness mag and cling to the Women’s Health mag, but the swimsuit thing Women’s Health has is a joke! I could watch that feature and just laugh. I mean, seriously??
I’m with you on this one. Let’s celebrate US! It’s not about imperfections or all the things we’re not. We are alive and thriving and working to do the best (most of the time) for our bodies. Now THAT is a reason to have a great weekend!
Have fun! =)
I actually like Fitness more than a lot of the mags in that genre because they use quite a lot of normal looking models. And they’re not even like “Look it’s the token plus-sized gal in our bikini spread!” Last month they had an entire bikini spread with one seriously curvy girl and nary a word of explanation. Loved it.
Thank you for the links. Have a great weekend!
Have a great weekend, shorty! 🙂 Just kidding!
I don’t read those magazines you mentioned, so can’t really comment. But I do like the attitude of this post. I can’t think of anything positive to say about myself today, though, so I’ll just applaud you instead!
I’m on the petite side too… but “good things come in small packages!” 😉
Sheesh! I’m into the quotes and phrases this week!
WOO HOO!
and giggles that I was up at the CRACK this morning filming my MONDAY FACETIME which is almostkinda about this…
love your post and you body HEARTing.
That article about the flaws is amazing! So great to see women embracing their body instead of rejecting it. I love the “My butt can stop traffic” part XD
Enjoy your weekend!
I love your insights here!! I totally agree with it all and more. Have a fabulous weekend Sagan! Oh and thanks for the PB2 review! I’ve been so curious about it!
Cheers <3
I agree, I get so tired of magazines suggesting that “real” bodies are something to be ashamed of!
Better to feel good about who are than aspire to be some photoshopped picture in magazine.
I saw that Women’s Health link on Ashley’s blog. Crazy. That wouldn’t help me find a bathing suit at all!
Great links about body image. I especially liked the ones about the flaws. It is nice to be reminded that everyone has them, and we just need to get over it.