fighting bad body images

I’ve been thinking about body image lately. And how we view our own bodies. I can only speak for myself here, but I can also relate to how my fellow girls speak about their own bodies, and act around the subject. It’s quite frustrating living in a world, in a society where the body is constantly rated. Good bum, big hips, broad shoulders, love handles, thigh gaps etc. I am constantly aware about how I feel in my body, its always on my mind. Do I feel fat or slim, bloated or relaxed. And maybe it’s good to be aware of how you feel, but when the reason you are aware of your body is because of pure looks, you should probably start being aware of your awareness.

We get taught by society to talk our bodies down. If a girl in my school gave another girl a compliment about her body and she said “thank you” and accepted the compliment without saying something negative about herself, she would be looked upon like she was the most arrogant woman in the world. How fucked up is that? I hear it all the time, working in the fitting rooms at work. You give someone a compliment and they quickly raise the compliment with something they hate about their bodies. How can we make this go away? How can we just agree that the body is just a body, that it’s not a measurement that measure how much you are worth as a human. So many times I let my body decide how I’ll feel and show up. If I feel unhappy with my body I wont relax, I shut down and I feel useless. When I’m happy with my body I can handle almost anything. What would happen if there wasn’t a standard body to correct oneself after. What if we all accepted the beauty in difference? Would we find it easier to just love then?