Last week I was talking to Mum and a family friend. They were talking about their bodies, specifically the parts that they don't like. I didn't say anything and mum looked at me then apologised. I'm not sure what she was apologising for.
Hearing conversations like that makes me sad and angry at the same time. Sad that women are made to feel bad about their bodies and angry at the way womens bodies are portrayed.
We need to see real women in the media, in movies, in magazines, on tv etc. Real women, not photoshopped and heavily edited versions that are totally unrealistic and unattainable.
The next day I had a conversation with Mum. I asked her if she's ever thought about why she doesn't like her body and told her that I think it's because of the way the media portrays women. I pointed out that diet and anti aging ads are all targeted at women. We spoke about cellulite being something we're shamed for yet over 80% of women have it, therefore it's not shameful it's normal. We discussed the lack of representation of older women on our tv screens, in the media, movies etc. I hate that Mum feels bad about her body because real women are not shown anywhere.
Things won't change unless we make them, however I'm not sure where to start. Slowly I'm seeing normal people shown but not very often.
Perhaps if we all accept ourselves the way we are and be unapologetically real that will slowly influence the people around us. Maybe by doing this in ten years time the world will be a different place and women will no longer be treated like objects that must be kept in pristine condition.
Women don't owe society anything. We don't need to be anything other than what we want to be. If we have body hair, so what. If we aren't stick thin, so what. If we have wrinkles, stretch marks and other things that make us human, that's perfectly okay.
It's time we stopped buying into the hype and started being our beautiful, real selves.
Maybe once we start accepting ourselves the world will be forced to do the same.
