What is a Normal Body Anyway?
I have this pet peeve. Actually, sometimes it goes beyond pet peeve right to infuriating. It is when “they” (media, society, advertisers, corporations, other people) try to make you believe that your body isn’t normal. Through both direct and subliminal messaging, you are made to feel that your personal size, shape, color, and landscape all need to be altered or fixed. Honey, it ain’t true. Let’s dig in.
Your brain is receiving messages constantly. From your Pinterest fitness inspiration boards, to the magazines you flip through at the doc’s office, to the filtered images of your friends/family on social media, to signage and billboards out in the world. You’re seeing headlines about “lose that last 10 lbs FAST!” or “clearer skin in days!” or “get thicker hair overnight!” or “cellulite ERASED!” UGGGGGH it makes me want to pound my head against a wall and then go hug every single woman I know who has been made to feel “not normal” her entire life.
What started out as lazy marketing has completely infiltrated our entire culture. Somehow, many decades ago, some advertiser realized he could sell lipstick or girdles or diet potions to women by making them feel like their bodies weren’t ok. “Ideally, your waist should be such-and-such ratio! Oh, wait! Yours isn’t? No problem, just buy this fancy girdle so you can be normal like everyone else!” Over the years, women were fed this horrible messaging that they were somehow flawed in their natural state.
Not only is this completely exploitative, unethical, and GROSS, it’s all a giant lie. You see Love, there is no perfect waist size, lip color, weight, lash length, or hip shape. Your body is perfect because it’s yours. It’s here breathing and beating and seeing and feeling. It’s here keeping you alive so you can experience this life and there is nothing you need to change about it.
You are not flawed if you have:
Stringy hair
Thick hair
Curly hair
Cellulite
Weight that fluctuates with the seasons or your cycle or stress
Extra small feet
Extra large feet
Two different sized feet
An asymmetrical face
Crooked teeth Braces
A double chin when you laugh
A snort when you laugh
Pointy boobs
Saggy boobs
Small boobs
Big boobs
A belly
A flat tummy
Skinny legs
Thick legs
Freckles
^^Everything on this list and the thousands of other “issues” that the diet and beauty industries like to point out are ALL COMPLETELY NORMAL.
(I’M NOT YELLING. I’M EMPHASIZING.)
Have you been snared by this way of thinking? This completely made-up lie that you aren’t perfect just the way you are? We all have. It is so ingrained in our culture that it’s hard not to. But please, Beautiful, let today be the day you quit listening to all those lies. You are normal. You deserve to show up in this world however you like.
You know something we will never do at Pure Impressions? Try to make you feel less-than normal to get you to buy our products. Our handmade jewelry is for every body and will look beautiful on your wrist, neck, or fingers because YOU are beautiful. You are. Period.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you.
❥ Kristen