body image

Body Image

During a visit to a museum store awhile ago, I purchased a postcard of a lovely, ample, Renoir female nude. I put the postcard in a place I would see it often, to remind myself how bodies look in the real world.

I also avoided women's magazines for several months - the reading of them, or even looking at the covers in the checkout lane. By choosing to prevent those unrealistic images from further contaminating my brain, over time I felt less compelled to compare myself to them.

Through my self-imposed moratorium on print media, accepting the contours of my body came easier too. Now, the few times I AM in a conventional checkout lane and have occasion to see those magazine covers, I notice the airbrushing, the exaggerated posing, the fan-enhanced hair.

I notice the facade, and appreciate having extricated myself from that torture.

The next time you are confronted with a media image of what it is to be female, very matter-of-factly say to it, "You're not real."

Take a break from the barrage of consumerism and be-someone-else messages in most women's magazines. Spend some time reading those books you've ordered from interlibrary loan.

Find your own realistic image online of feminine radiance in a Renoir or a Rubens portrait. Put it somewhere you'll see it often.

Notice any subtle differences in your perception of yourself, or the culture at large.

And love that body of yours.

Tenaciously.