This is for women everywhere, but mostly for women in the wealthy west with too much time to waste on worrying: whether you are young or old, tall or short, skinny, thin, chubby or even fat:
A loving God says this TO YOU:
I created your inmost being;
I knit you together in your mother’s womb.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made;
YOU ARE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE!
(adapted from Psalm 139)
The time is now.It is time to stop trying to live up to the myth of perfection! An important victory was won today as far as advertising is concerned; the Advertising Watchdog in the U.K has held up complaints about overly airbrushed images used by L'Oreal . Images of Julia Roberts and Christy Turlington portraying flawless skin were described by Liberal Democrat M.P. Jo Swinson as:
" ...digitally manipulated and "not representative of the results the product could achieve".
L'Oreal admitted to the airbrushing and the complaint was upheld the ASA said.:
"On the basis of the evidence we had received we could not conclude that the ad image accurately illustrated what effect the product could achieve, and that the image had not been exaggerated by digital post-production techniques,"
Strangely we know this and yet the pressure we feel to be like the airbrushed images of false perfection is enormous! And it is painful! It is painful because it tells us we are not good enough and never will be good enough! But you are good enough and nobody has airbrushed skin!
YOU ARE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE!
The of course there is the pressure to be the perfect shape, a blog post by Undercovernun revealed this:
"A friend of a friend won a free consultation with Clinton Kelly of What Not To Wear, and she was very excited, because she has a plus-size body, and wanted some tips on how to make the most of her wardrobe in a fashion culture which deliberately puts her body at a disadvantage.
Her first question for him was this: how do celebrities make a plain white t-shirt and a pair of weekend jeans look chic? She always assumed it was because so many celebrities have, by nature or by design, very slender frames, and because they can afford very expensive clothing. But when she watched What Not To Wear, she noticed that women of all sizes ended up in cute clothes that really fit their bodies and looked great. She had tried to apply some guidelines from the show into her own wardrobe, but with only mixed success. So - what gives?
His answer was that everything you will ever see on a celebrity’s body, including their outfits when they’re out and about and they just get caught by a paparazzo, has been tailored, and the same goes for everything on What Not To Wear. Jeans, blazers, dresses - everything right down to plain t-shirts and camisoles. He pointed out that historically, up until the last few generations, the vast majority of people either made their own clothing or had their clothing made by tailors and seamstresses. You had your clothing made to accommodate the measurements of your individual body, and then you moved the fuck on. Nothing on the show or in People magazine is off the rack and unaltered. He said that what they do is ignore the actual size numbers on the tags, find something that fits an individual’s widest place, and then have it completely altered to fit. That’s how celebrities have jeans that magically fit them all over, and the rest of us chumps can’t ever find a pair that doesn’t gape here or ride up or slouch down or have about four yards of extra fabric here and there."
Now wouldn't it be wonderful to know that... all of this clothing altered to look good, none of it off the peg because nobody is the perfect shape! There is no perfect shape! We are all different!
WE ARE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE!
Yes of course we should take care of ourselves, we should eat sensibly and take exercise, and yes it is good to care for our skin, and yes it's fine to care about what we wear, but let's not be obsessive in the way that the fashion and beauty industry wants us to be obsessive. Take a few moment to think about the beautiful people in your life, and I am willing to guess that they are not celebrity airbrushed models!
Two of the most beautiful women I know could never be described as skinny but their smiles light up a room. I struggle to find tops and jackets to fit because I have swimmers shoulders- because I trained to swim as a teenager and I still swim, it keeps me fit, and my arms have muscles they are far from the stick thin ideal! My elder daughter is a swimmer too and a professional cellist, her arm muscles are bigger than mine (though mine are fatter than hers), but she is fit and healthy and beautiful....
So lets speak out against the industry that demands that we reach for the impossible, let's celebrate our createdness by enjoying who we are in every way that we can, whether we are short, tall, fat or thin, whether we come close to a magazine ideal of not:
WE ARE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE!
I'll finish with this, a poem written in response to Lisa Isherwood's Fat Jesus:
My body is not a
Stick like shape
Favoured by magazines
Where
Anorexic
Lifeless
Models
Impossibly thin
Are paraded as
The perfect female!
.
My body has borne children,
My hips curve
My breasts are full
And my belly sags a little…
And yes
I’ll admit to
The occasional stretch mark!
.
My face is not
The flawless
Air brushed face
Of fashion magazines,
Where wrinkles
And blemishes
Are banned…
I wonder how much
Real face we see.
And how much is
Computer generated?
.
My face is not perfect,
I have laughter lines
Around my eyes,
And the odd dark spot
From being in the sun…
And yes
I’ll admit to
The occasional frown line!
.
I have a woman’s body
And I am NOT ashamed!
This is one of my favourite photo's of me, at the time I was not conscious of what my hair looked like or how fat I might look, and it shows!
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