FAT-TALK-FREE FEBRUARY DAILY CHALLENGE: let yourself wear something that makes you feel good.
Summer 2015 I drew a series of posters to go with quotes I love. Brené Brown and Geneen Roth write words that resonate deep within me. I was feeling particularly body (self)conscious and that was the summer I began to draw body shame and body love. I was new to the body positivity movement and was exploring my thoughts and ideas.
The above poster was one of my first attempts to say all bodies belong. To say that your body doesn't define you. To say that sometimes being brave enough to wear a bathing suit at any size is a form of courage because you make yourself vulnerable ...
... for the last few years I have used this poster and this idea that is courageous to "show up and be seen" in a very literal way. I have shared this drawing numerous times as a way to illustrate the "bravery" of someone over the current socially idealized weight to be in a bathing suit in public.
As I was getting ready to post this today, I paused.
I write these posts often days or weeks ahead of time and post them by 7am each day.
Today I just couldn't do it. I deleted what I wrote and sat and stared at my drawing.
The drawing and the quote separately are still things I love. And, (and this will be my first F bomb in this blog) what the fuck was I thinking combining them?
There is nothing brave about putting on a bathing suit! Any one, of any size, at any time, can wear whatever they want. From a bikini to a burka. YOUR BODY, YOUR CLOTHING, YOUR CHOICE!
How dare I suggest that being in your body in a public space is an act of courage. It IS an act of courage because of the judgemental and hate-driven society that we live in. But the very idea that being SEEN requires bravery makes me deeply angry. I feel like the combination of that image with that quote implies that being comfortable in your body is in and of itself an act of rebellion. Which it IS ... but my discomfort is that it DOES NOT HAVE TO BE!
Being in your own body in public space, existing, is your RIGHT.
This post is more of a musing than anything else.
You deserve to be.
You deserve love and care.
You deserve respect.
The end.
What do you think about the image with the quote? How does it make you feel? Or think? Am I overreacting in my feeling that they don't belong together?
Be kind.
xoxo
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