Over the years of my teenage life, and starting my twenties, I have learnt that I absolutely despise the phrase "real women". I'm sorry, but to be a "real" woman do you have to be blessed with gorgeous curves?
When I was being raised by my mother, I was taught that every shape and form is beautiful, and that no woman's body is the same. What I wasn't taught is that to be a woman, you must posses curves.
I have grown sick and tired of hearing "real men like curves, only dogs go for bones" or "corners are for tables, curves are for women". Those phrases make my blood boil. No, I'm not the skinniest girl, so comments like those don't offend me as much as they would probably offend a girl who is of an extra small size. What I don't understand is why is being naturally skinny frowned upon so much? The media is partly to blame. Actually, it is a huge part to blame. Not only do companies everywhere have skinny girls on billboards and advertisements, but they are photo-shopped to such an extent that they don't look human anymore. These advertisements give younger people everywhere false expectations of what the "perfect" human body looks like. This causes insecurity, and in some cases the insecurity gets to such a serious extent that it can lead to anorexia, bulimia or depression.
In the 50's it was fashionable to be curvaceous and have an hourglass figure.
But despite all of the hate towards people wanting to slim down, nowadays, it is crucial to be skinny. Where is the logic in that? There's this pressure to have "the perfect bikini body" and to have the flattest tummy. Yes, we are encouraged to keep fit and healthy, which is good. But why aren't we told that it's totally fine to be comfortable with who you are, and learn to love your figure whether you're big, curvy, skinny, small or tall.
The world would be a much better place.
All over the internet, I see articles about how unfair it is that there is this unrealistic standard of beauty that we have to "live up" to. Lighten up. We don't have to live up to anyone's expectations. What we should do instead is learn to love ourselves. I don't mean becoming a cocky person who is full of themselves, who everybody ends up disliking (for the record, they tend to be the ones with the biggest insecurities), I mean that you should learn to become somebody who is comfortable in their own skin. It's not an easy thing to do, but firstly, start with embracing your imperfections.
My insecurities? I don't have a forehead, I have a fivehead. In the Tudor age, if you had a large forehead, you were seen as an intelligent person. I can live with that... Also, I experimented on Photoshop to see what I would look like if my forehead was any smaller. Let's just say the result was pretty hilarious and my face looked ridiculously out of proportion. I can definitely live with having a fivehead. If Tyra Banks can, so can I.
Another insecurity of mine? My pale skin. When I was a teenager I was desperate for my skin to go brown in the sunlight. It always ended in tears, plenty of after sun, wet flannels and freezing cold baths. Unfortunately I learnt the hard way. Now I couldn't give a monkeys about having pale skin. I mean, look at the Elves in any Peter Jackson film. They are pale and fabulous! Do you see any of them rocking a tan from the Maldives? Didn't think so.
However my biggest insecurity of all is my tummy. Learning to not give a damn about it is a work in progress.
The Victoria Secret models being bikini babes and having fun on the beach.
Click here to read about the Size Me Up launch campaign. A very interesting read.
Also, for another interesting article about the same subject of this blog post,
click here! Well worthy of a read.
I know saying "learn to love yourself" is easier said than done, but in my opinion, I think people everywhere should learn to do it.
