Near the end of the school year, a 38 year old teacher was arrested in the suburbs of Chicago, charged with having sex with a former student (who is 16 years old). In addition to the inappropriate sexual relationship, the teacher also supposedly supplied marijuana to the gang in which the student belonged, and possibly even joined the gang. After the arrest, the teacher was allowed to return to the home in which the teacher's spouse and two young daughters resided.

When I posted an earlier version of this reflection on how we women are too hard on ourselves, a concept I revisit periodically, I was surprised that immediately following the post at my personal blog, two women dropped by to say, "Amen!" It was one of those days when I was writing to speak to myself and not so much to others, reminding myself that I have more work to do on the path of self-acceptance so I can enjoy the view.

October 15th is Love Your Body Day from the NOW Foundation. They ask, "Do you love what you see when you look in the mirror?" Honestly, most days when I look in the mirror, I feel pretty OK about who I see. And grateful that I feel pretty OK about who I see, truth be told. But love? Hm...You know, when I love my body is when I'm using it. Feeling it.

When BlogHer asked me to kick off their Letter to My Body campaign back in February, I was excited. Study after study shows that most women living in Western societies are unsatisfied with their bodies. Who can blame us?

I’ve been telling this lie for some 20+ years and now I’m tired of it…the cover-up.  I’ve decided to go for the silver – to let my white roots grow out.  I am not as beautiful as José Mateo (of José Mateo Ballet Theatre in Cambridge) or as striking as Frieda Garcia, or as stunning as legendary model Carmen Dell'Orifice (check out the video about her on You Tube).   I didn’t inherit my grandmother’s high cheeks that were strong/beautiful/alluring for her entire life.  (I always think women with high cheekbones have faces that l

Hate your body? Can't bear to look in the mirror? If your answers are yes, stop right where you are and listen to this podcast interview I did last week with Kelly Park.

Do you hate your body?  Do you avoid looking in the mirror for fear of what you'll see?  Well Kelly Park and Carson Kressley of Lifetime Television's "How To Look Good Naked" may be able to help.  And without liposuction, facelifts, butt lifts or tummy tucks. As part of BlogHer's "Letter To My Body" campaign which tries to help women improve their body image, I'm going to have the pleasure of doing a podcast interview with Kelly Park who starred in the premiere of this season's "How To Look Good Naked."

I've been struggling with a secret, which is this: I'm really, really not in love with my body right now. I have, been keeping it secret for two reasons: 1) it's totally new to me - I've never really struggled with my body image, even after my last pregnancy, which added padding where no padding had hitherto existed, and so it just feels foreign and weird and (obviously) bad, and 2) it also feels so, I don't know, anti-feminist or anti-woman or anti-me (which, really, collapses into a kind of counter-womanism, to be anti-yourself as a woman) and I just so don't want to be that.

Let me just start this post with full disclosure: I suffered from anorexia from age 17 through age 19, and I didn't really make a full recovery until around age 28. I have Issues With Food. I have Issues With Body Image. And pregnancy (and its accompanying forced, out-of-control body changes and weight gain) was extremely difficult for me to take emotionally. I can still remember sitting on my parents' couch when I was about three months' pregnant and seeing my legs beginning to swell in the evenings and realizing it was not going to get any better for a very, very long time.

I'm a lot like Zan. I've never hated my body, either. My under-eating wasn't related to body image or any negative self esteem or self harm. I just didn't spend a lot of time thinking about my body and what it needed. I took it for granted that I was fit and healthy and that was that.

Courtney Macavinta of Respect RX spoke with Dominique Dawes about gymnastics, body image and self esteem.Dominique, 31, was the first African-American woman to win an individual medal in gymnastics, having won bronze in the floor exercise at the ’96 Games, the second of her third Olympics. She was recently named – along with her teammates on the “Magnificent Seven” from 1996 – to the United States Olympic Committee’s Hall of Fame and will be inducted in June.Listen to the podcast with this player or download it by right clicking this link and selecting "save as": Courtney Macavinta Spoke with Dominique Dawes about Body Image.