Look in the Mirror, Do You Love What You See?

October 21, 2009 by blackgirlgrown
Filed under personal development

It is rare to find a woman who doesn’t immediately look to her flaws while looking in the mirror. A cellulite dimple here, a scar there, an extra ten pounds everywhere. The list of negatives is endless. I always see a childhood scar, those extra ten pounds, and nettlesome bruises from always bumping into stuff – among a long list of others.

But, when was the last time you looked in the mirror and loved your body? What is it that you LOVE about your body? Take a moment, and force yourself to find your beauty. As for me, I love my height, my hips, my shoulders, and the arch of my neck.

None of us are perfect in the eyes of very unrealistic body image standards we put on ourselves. As African American women we are more forgiving of ourselves when it comes to weight. But that doesn’t mean we don’t suffer from poor body image and the conditions that arise from it.

For more than a decade, the National Organization for Women (NOW) Foundation commemorates October 21st as “Love Your Body Day.” With a focus on advertisement, fashion models and magazines, and diet industries, NOW advocates women to rebuke the images we find in magazines and embrace our own beauty. According to NOW:

Marie Bushbaum

…Photoshopping of models and celebrities has really gotten out of hand lately. Self magazine felt the need to digitally slenderize singer Kelly Clarkson before putting her on the cover of its “total body confidence” issue, even though Clarkson has said that she is comfortable with herself just the way she is. Model Filippa Hamilton recently revealed that she was fired by Ralph Lauren for being too big, despite being a size four. Hamilton is the same model who appeared in a Ralph Lauren ad that was so aggressively retouched that she appeared emaciated and completely out of proportion.

If models can’t catch a break, how can the rest of us hope to have a healthy self-image? Starting at younger and younger ages, eating disorders, low self-esteem, and a preoccupation with appearance plague women and girls, sometimes with disastrous results. “In my teenage years, I was hospitalized for anorexia,” said eating disorder survivor and NOW Action Vice President Erin Matson. “I remember a fellow patient winning a modeling contest while she was on a pass from the hospital. The only way to end the glorification of unhealthy beauty stereotypes is to stand up proudly for real women’s bodies.”

That’s why the NOW Foundation is celebrating its 12th annual Love Your Body Day on Oct. 21. This campaign is a giant shout out to the fashion, beauty, diet and advertising industries: No more fake images! Show us real women, diverse women, strong women, bold women. And to the women and girls who are targeted by messages telling them that the key to success and happiness is manufactured beauty, we say: It’s okay to “Be You” — the true you is beautiful.