Your Body Has No Flaws
Snowed under at work, but had to share this post from onceupon, which struck me as very profound and wonderful today.
I don’t talk about my body in terms of flaws. Even if I weren’t into fat/body/size/whatever flavor you call it acceptance, I wouldn’t because to define things in terms of negative qualities is to define something as negative. I just don’t have time for that kind of crap. I have too many other things to do to spend my mental and emotional energy in considering my body to be a negative Thing, a flawed object, a no-good construction that is somehow separate from my self.
My body can do a lot of stuff. It doesn’t fit the ideal but, then, no one does. Even my allergies are an example of my body doing something right – if hella over-efficiently.
I reject the context of “flaws” and “imperfections” as a framework for body discussion.
Look forward to hearing what you think. Happy Friday!
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Advocacy, Feel Good Friday, Tidbit
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That is GREAT!!!!!
(And the best attitude toward allergies ever, lol!)
Amen!
I just wrote about this not long ago on my blog. The “Habit-A-Week” habit 2 Mondays ago was : “love yourself.” I think we have to appreciate the goodness about our bodies, and be forgiving of our flaws. It’s really hard to take good care of yourself when you’re full of self-loathing.
Meh. I’m torn. Because in one way, this is an awesome sentiment. In another, it’s pretty ablist. Because some bodies do have flaws, or people experience them as flaws. Like, my body comes into contact with a particular species of plant, and I develop blisters all over – arms, cheeks, neck. It’s not pretty. That? Is a pretty serious imperfection and makes nature walks a real adventure. Also, those migraines are a bit more than a quirky extra.
It works in theory, but alas not always in practice.
Sounds really nice though….
What a wonderful attitude. There really is no ideal out there!!!
I don’t think of the body as being perfect in design, but in evolution, I guess.
I definitely think there are flaws, though I’d do well to stop making them such a huge part of my waking life.
I think I agree with Anita, in a way. While I don’t see bodily features as imperfections in the way I did when I was younger, I would happily change my flat feet if I could. There’s no upside. They hurt; I have to wear orthotics, which limits my shoe choice; they hold me back, for example, from going on long walks. I can make myself fitter but I can’t change the stretchiness of my ligaments, and I’ll probably have early problems with arthritis (I’m lucky I don’t already).
Clearly there are much worse problems to have. Lax ligaments are not a life-threatening condition, and they don’t affect my day-to-day life very much, but yes, I do consider them a flaw.
I feel like I have an interesting perspective on this after this weekend. I spent this weekend with a man that is absolutely enamoured with me and in a a discussion we got around to the subject of body size/image/attractiveness. I am lucky in that he values and participates in real honesty. And he let me know that all of his preconcieved notions of “fat women” were completely out the door once we got to be together (we met online) and not only was he wrong and felt bad (I told him not to, you learn from experiences) he was incredibly attracted to me and my body and my all time favorite quote of the evening (there was booze involved) “because baby, you make fat look so f**king HOT”
I dont think my body is flaws anymore (yes i used to think that). I think my body is different than a lot of pictures in the media but it is what I have and I wear it like I wear clothes, and I make these clothes look good! And so do all of you!
*laugh* How awesome to see this here! That’s my personal livejournal. *grin*
Anita, this was written for my personal journal – when I joked about my allergies, my friendslist read that knowing just how serious my allergies are. As in, some of them could kill me very quickly. I’m allergic, in varying degrees, to the entire planet, plus the sun, so…. And, a week ago, I had an extremely painful bout with debilitating mystery hives (tip: a zyrtec and a zantac work wonders against food-bourne allergens – zantac is a class-2 histamine blocker), so to see anything positive in that is… a challenge.
The point is not that everything going on with your body is unreservedly fantastic and great – some stuff sucks to experience. But I also don’t think disabilities are in the same category as, you know, freckles or an ass that’s “too big” or eyes that are “too close together” or whatever else the world is ready and waiting to declare as being wrong with women’s bodies. Or men’s bodies.
And, really, if we frame disabled bodies as flawed, we’re perpetuating the idea that disabled bodies have less worth and that is a pretty disgusting idea. As I said in my post: bodies have characteristics. All bodies have the same worth.
Cindy, I don’t think there is any such thing as perfection in nature – if there were, evolution and adaptation would come to an end and that just hasn’t happened. *grin* The thing is, if there is no perfect ideal, then deviations from an arbitrary “norm” are not the end of the world that society would have us believe.
Vanessa, it isn’t just a theory – it just takes practice.
K, as I said to Anita – lax ligaments are not the same thing as the figure flaws that we’re taught to dress to hide, they aren’t the same as wrinkles, and they definitely aren’t the same thing as love handles.
@TheRotund – hear, hear! That’s how I feel about my own body, which is very abled yet still has some difficulties. My body has a pancreas that doesn’t produce insulin. My body also has too much of certain elements in the cerebrospinal fluid that make me incredibly sensitive to pain. My body doesn’t sleep well. That sucks to experience rather often. But my body has no flaws – it is what it is!
Exactly what I always needed to realize.
And now I have.
Thank You.