So it’s Love Your Body Day …
… and though I did contribute a post to NOW’s Love Your Body Day Blog Carnival, I can’t help but wonder whether “love your body” is a realistic or even effective message to be spreading. (I say this as someone who has uttered the phrase “love your body” more than once.) I personally do not love my body. Don’t get me wrong, because I don’t dislike it, but I doubt I ever will feel, um, enthused about it.
Here’s the thing: society gives you a lot of reasons to be deluded and obsessive about the way you look, but loving the way you look also requires some sort of delusion/obsession. We all get old, feel pain, wake up stiff, wrinkle, and eventually die. Our bodies don’t last us forever and even in our youth, they don’t always work the way we want them to. Why “love” your body then? Why not just accept that you inhabit it and shouldn’t treat it as an enemy? And given all the odds against positive body image, is a campaign like this really a compelling reason to feel better about your body if you do hate it? I guess at the end of the day, I just don’t think it’s particularly helpful to make people with shitty body image feel even shittier for not being able to overcome these insecurities.
Though of course, “tolerate your body” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Throughout October, I’m competing to win my own web series on SHAPE.com. I’d really appreciate it if you supported TheChicktionary.com in the Best Blogger Awards. (It’s super easy to vote, just a click!)
