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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.
Whether it's my mind figuring out the solution to a problem, my legs pushing the pedals of a bicycle, or the climatic moments of a fabulous orgasm, there are times when this 37-year-old body works great. For that I am thankful and for that I do feel love. That's the part of my body I treasure, and that helps me feel good about myself.
My looks? Well, that's more challenging. As NOW says on the Love Your Body website:
Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make each of us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Print ads and television commercials reduce us to body parts — lips, legs, breasts — airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. TV shows tell women and teenage girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that 80% of U.S. women are dissatisfied with their appearance?
My friends, I live in Hollywood. It can be challenging to feel good about your looks here when you aren't uber thin and fit, with perfectly applied makeup and dyed hair. And obviously, those images travel throughout the globe, and we all bear witness while magazine covers cut already thin arms in half and remove our beautiful wrinkles.
But Hollywood has also given us other images. I love 70s film because everyone looks so unique. It's like finding water in the desert to watch a film with normal-looking people. I recently watched Fame from 1980 and was struck by the same feelings. I love how teens in television and movies used to look like (or at least more like) real teenagers who actually wear clothes. Check out the two casts of 90210 in this post from Tracee Sioux on Empowering Girls: Sexier 90210, BusRadio Ads. It's striking how our media images have changed, and it's more than a change in clothing styles.
I don't want see starving people who all look the same in my media. I want to see people who look real and unique and imperfect and interesting. If you feel the same way, may I suggest you hit your local video store or work your Netflix queue? Other images are out there, and it can take surprisingly few to change how you see other people's looks and your own.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty had a serious impact on me. After looking at their billboards on my commute to work, I stopped thinking I was fat. And, this is going to sound really strange, but I can't get it back, the ability to look in the mirror and think I'm fat. Something clicked over in my mind, and now when I look in the mirror, I think I look OK. Normal. And that's a positive step, even if it's not all the way to "love."
That's a positive step that has me eating right and taking care of myself because it feels good to do so.
There's something else that's changed how I see myself in the mirror: The Blogosphere. Hollywood isn't the only world I live in. I live here, on the Internet, too. And here, I know there are people of all different shapes and sizes who live in my world, with a million different interests and passions beyond physical appearance. It helps me to regularly interact with a world of people outside of Hollywood. It gives me an inner strength to know you.
Which brings me to BlogHer's Letter to My Body Initiative that Suzanne launched in February 2008. At last count, Mr. Linky shows 144 participants. Here's 145:
Dear Body,
I am so sorry that I let that woman in Tallahassee permanently destroy our eyebrows. If there's any way we could start growing hair again in that place where she burned our skin off, that would be awesome.
Damn, we have great breasts. And lips. And hips.
And our gray hair makes our eyes really green now, instead of just when we get emotional. I do try to remember that when I see someone looking at our gray. I am really much happier about
