Day1: Body Myths

So this is Day 1 of Revisiting #10DaysofBodyTalk.

The Blues

I thought the first day was going to be a disaster, seriously. My phone woke up that morning and decided to go dead and I panicked. I had spent the previous night creating a poster on Canva which I now couldn’t share, there was a write-up all ready to be published which I couldn’t touch. To top it all off, I had an early morning class to attend so there was no option of me staying home to try and recreate anything.

Picture this: I had to sleep at midnight, creating a Whatsapp group and sending out invites to nearly all the female contacts in my phone. I tried not to imagine people getting up the morning and asking questions I wasn’t there to answer. Women generally are so impatient (yes personal reference) and they were probably going to take themselves out if no one was responding. So I went to school, kidnapped a friend’s phone (Sheron you are a lifesaver!), hastily set up a Whatsapp account and tried to salvage the situation.

To start off the #10DaysofBodyTalk campaign, I opened the conversation with this:
So what’s your definition of the perfect body?
Is it something like this:
Size: Slim
Hair: Long and straight
Height: Tall
Skin: Fair
Next thought: what defines beauty: media, the fashion industry, the girl next to you?
That’s not what beauty is. To me at least. So what’s beauty to you?

I got some really beautiful answers though.

Like this one:

Beauty to me starts from who the person is on the inside. If one has a beautiful heart, somehow that beauty becomes evident on the outside.
_Kiya

And this:

I think beauty after all, is defined by the individual. If you feel good,you will look good.
_Akwen

And my own:
The perfect body is not my body, It’s every body. It’s smooth cheeks of a baby, the wrinkles of my grandma’s face, the round belly of a pregnant woman, the
stretch marks on my thighs, the sagging breasts of a nursing woman, the belly rolls when I sit, hairy body, skinny legs, kinky hair.

So, the Perfect Body is your Body.

_Ameaka

Body Confessions

Slowly, the girls warmed up and began to share personal stories about their insecurities and personal body problem fixations. The more we talked, the more we realized that we all had common problems, were obsessing about the same things and even most surprisingly, that we had traits we detested that others absolutely adored.

It downed on us we had been made to feel a certain way about who we were, which isn’t truly who who are or what we thought of ourselves without all the voices in our minds trying to define us. As some candidly, put it:

Personally, I don’t have any problem with the way I look, but the main issue is the way people look at me, as if there was something wrong, and as time goes by the society gradually convinces me that there is something wrong with me. And I think that’s the problem we all face, you are comfortable in your skin until someone tells you you are getting too fat or too thin, were as you don’t see any consequences in your everyday activities! I love basketball, whether I put on 5 or 10 pounds, I still love and play my basketball! So I don’t get the society’s problem with my size.
_Brown

The Lightbulb Moment

I think its okay to not like everything about yourself. It’s human. What I think is not okay is to let others be the basis of this very personal decision.
Someone wisely said ‘Change the things you can’t accept, or accept the things you can’t change.’ Make it about YOU!
It’s a work in progress and we are all learning.

With these Pearls of Wisdom, Day 1 came to an end. See you in Day 2. Stay beautiful until next time!