A SEXY LIE

There are a few things that I am passionate about, but I often do not talk about them here. This is a silly space that I created to share things about myself and my little life here in Idaho. But sometimes I feel like I just need to share some things and get them off my chest.

One issue that really just instantly infuriates me is this idea that woman are sex objects. I don't like Victoria's Secret because all their models in their ads are scantily clad impossibly skinny models who are setting the standard for what I have to look like even though I will never be as tall, as thin, or as sculpted as their pretty little airbrushed bodies in the magazines are. And that just really irritates me.

My body is beautiful just the way it is. There are things that I can do to make myself healthier or stronger, and that is what I focus on. But that is not how all girls focus on their bodies, and I often find myself struggling to keep mentally healthy as well because I am always inundated with what "beauty" looks like.

Living in a culture where I am constantly bombarded with images of mostly naked girls doesn't do a lot for my self esteem or my motivation to keep on being myself. Myself is never good enough, and it will never be good enough for my culture if things stay the same way that they are now.

This is a prime example of why I dislike Victoria's Secret. Those bodies are all the same, just colored differently. That is not a good message to be sending to girls and woman of any and all ages about their bodies, and yet this keeps happening.

It is driving me nuts.

And when I saw this video, I kept saying to myself "this. so much this" over and over and over again because I believe what she has to say is just spot on. And men don't even really realize that this type of marketing affects girls in this way, but it does.

I am thinking of how my legs are placed, how my hair is lying, where the light is hitting my face, and what angle people are talking to me from. I think about how my body looks in a room full of people and I engage in female competition. Are you shocked? You shouldn't be.

Having a positive body image is something that I fight for every day of my life, and honestly, I struggle more days than I care to admit. I used to weigh 156 pounds. For a girl of 5'4" that's quite a bit. I wore a size eleven jean and I hated having my picture taken. My self worth was really low and that had a lot to do with how I viewed myself as well as how I was being treated by PC while we were dating. But then, if I didn't value myself then why should he value me at all?

So now I'm twenty pounds lighter and I'm working to make my body a healthy one, not a skinny one. Plus Nathan doesn't treat me in a way that makes me feel bad about my body. Ever.

I encourage you to watch this video. Take twelve minutes out of your day to understand what it's like for a girl to live in this culture. We are so much more than sex objects. We are smart. We are brave. We are beautiful, fat rolls and all. And if you say anything to the contrary, then you need to do some serious self reevaluation. Girls need to be told that they are enough just the way they are. That doesn't mean that they should be okay with weighing 300 pounds and never exercising, but it also shouldn't force them into skipping meals so they can be a size double zero. There is a healthy balance, and we should try to obtain that instead of being so concerned with making ourselves sexy.