For too long now, women have been asked to look a certain way because they have been told that anything else is unacceptable. Now, however, women who don’t look like Barbie dolls on magazine covers have started to ask why must they look like that and who exactly will they be unacceptable to? We have been walking the streets with more and more confidence after noticing that most people on the road do not look like starved models, but in fact, look like human being with flesh and blood and fat and skin.
However, despite being able to see for ourselves the sham that the fashion industry and every other institution in society has been trying to convince us of, some beautiful women are finding it difficult to fight the negativity they face because of the scars they have, their love handles, for being a size too big, a size too small, for being a shade too dark, and for a horde of other reasons which they still care about, because these ideas have been imposed on them.
Suggested read: I am a fat n fit bride and I won’t diet
Here are 12 reasons why we think you should love your body because you are beautiful just the way you are.
1. You need to become the confident little girl that you used to be
Image source: Pinterest
There was a time in your life when you rolled in sand, ate mud, and went out with mismatching clothes, yet you were happy. Have you noticed how, despite conforming to the rules and norms of society and adhering to everything that is considered “normal” still makes you unhappy because no one seems to be satisfied with the way you look? It is important that you get back the youthful, carefree energy that you used to possess before all these social pressures began to cripple your self-confidence. When you are able to shed these fears and insecurities about your body, you become confident and sexy, which is makes you look and feel beautiful inside and out.
2. The ‘perfect’ body is a myth that needs to be broken
A lot of people waste a lot of time trying to get the ‘perfect’ body that they have in their mind. The only perfect body that you should be chasing after is a healthy body, whether or not it matches the weight of some fashion model on some random magazine telling you that the way you look is not good enough. There is no such thing as the universally accepted ‘perfect body’. Human beings have been made in different ways and their bodies are built differently, which makes everyone a benchmark for some body type or the other.
3. Food is meant to be eaten
Image source: Google, copyright-free image under Creative Commons License
Body shaming is a trend which is disgusting not only because it ruins the self-esteem and confidence of a lot of people, but it also somehow manages to convince them to stay away from doing the things they love- like eating certain kinds of food. If you walk by a confectionery and the smell of cake and the sight of other baked products appeal to you, there is nothing in the world that should stop you from going right in and having it (unless you have diabetes or something). Denying yourself the things you love because someone told you “you need to lose weight” is just stupid.
4. The people who accuse you are imperfect themselves
The next time you have relatives or friends or acquaintances or random people on TV telling you that your body doesn’t look good enough or that you are too fat or too thin or too short or too something else, assess them for a change instead of beating yourself up, and notice how many shortcomings and insecurities they have. The people who seem to feel it is necessary to pass judgement on you, are themselves screwed up in some way or the other, and because humans are some of the worst creatures alive, they need to inflict their mental handicap on others, and what better way to do it other than by telling others that they are even more imperfect than themselves. Lesson: do not believe everything everyone tells you about your body because it is incited by some shortcoming of their own. If they can’t love their body, there’s no reason you should hold back from loving your own. Love your body!
5. Because all the important people think you are beautiful
Image source: Pixabay, under Creative Commons License
To be honest, all the people of consequence fight against body shaming, because they are smart enough to realize what an absolute sham it is that young girls are being coerced into. Whether it is Meryl Streep or Oprah Winfrey or Channing Tatum or Mila Kunis or Chrissy Teigen, everyone who has any sense will tell you how beautiful you are and how you need to love your body just the way it is. Thus, the struggle is not to please those who criticize you for the way you look, but to listen to the right people. Also, they are examples that stand for the fact that size has nothing to do with success.
Suggested read: 10 compelling reasons for dating a fat girl
6. Today’s standard of beauty is just plain funny
With editing and PhotoShop and the workout and fitness culture getting out of hand, the standard of beauty which so many girls are pressurized into believe in is an absolute joke. Most of the time, the bodies that you see on magazine covers are not bodies at all, but cut and created by computers so that they look way too lean, way too thin, way too smooth, and definitely abnormal. Whenever you are feeling inadequate after seeing things like that, imagine what it would be like to hold a body like that. It would freak anyone out. When you are finding it difficult to love yourself just the way you are, remember that stick-thin legs, skin that looks like shiny cling-wrap and a non-existing booty is not attractive.
7. It doesn’t matter whether you lose or gain a few pounds
Image source: Pinterest
Honestly though, how does it matter whether you are 120lb or 140 lb or anything below, over or in between? No one is running after you with a weight other than your own demons. A pound or twenty over what is supposed to be your ‘ideal’ weight according to a thousand other conditions is adding unnecessary pressure on you to be someone you don’t have to, because you are just fine the way you are. The only time you should be thinking about gaining or losing weight is when you feel inspired to, or when you feel unhealthy. Apart from that, numbers on a page shouldn’t be controlling your life.
8. Your “imperfections” make you unique
Whether it is your freckles or your love handles or your moles or your chipped tooth, it is those little things that make you who you are and separate you from the crowd. For the longest time, I was bullied for having a tiny, extra fold in my ear and two moles on my face. After years of struggling with negative criticism, I realized that they were what made me stand out from the rest, and were in fact, great conversation starters. The fold became that special part of me and the moles became beauty spots!
9. What matters inside is much more important that what is on the outside
Image source: Pinterest
It doesn’t matter if you are a size minus 15, if you are mean, selfish, unkind and horrible as a person, no one is going to like you for the way you look. Another practical life lessons is that no matter how conventionally pretty you are, the ugliness inside has a way of manifesting itself physically. On the other hand, if you are a beautiful, happy, kind and loving person, your beauty will shine above everyone else’s.
10. Because your body can do so many other incredible things
The last thing you should be beating yourself up about is the fact that your body doesn’t look a certain way. Your body is your temple, and it can do so many other incredible things, which a lot of other people cannot. Whether it is to jump, or run or to house your beautiful thoughts, your body is much more than a size, much more than fat and “extra” skin, much more than all the derogatory things that you think about yourself.
11. You have one life, which shouldn’t be a life of rules and confinement
Say suppose you have succumbed to social pressure and you are now in a mission to look exactly the way that everyone wants you to look like. That would entail not being able to eat free cake when it is offered to you, spending time at the gym instead of binge watching your favorite TV show with a tub of ice cream, eating random plants when your friends are enjoying a sexy barbecue and many more such horror stories. I know it’s a clichéd saying, but you really do have one life, and what is the point of living when you are going to spend half your time regretting the things you do, when you can be perfectly content with the way you are?
Suggested read: Women in power show more signs of depression than me, says study
12. People will judge you anyway
Image source: Pinterest
The truth of the matter is that no matter what you look like, people will manage to find something or the other that is wrong with you. If you lose weight, you’ll become too thin, if you become too fair, you will become fake, there is honestly no end to people’s store of judgement and negative criticism, which is why there is no point taking them seriously in the first place.
Even though it might be difficult to emerge from this article brimming with self confidence, it is important that you understand your own worth and learn to love yourself slowly and gradually, so that you see yourself as everyone of any consequence will see you- as happy and beautiful.
Featured image source: Pixabay, under Creative Commons License
Facebook
Disqus
Google + 
