body
Feminism demands a future free of fat shaming, body obsession and the male gaze.
L.O.V.E. Your Body, Love Yourself
FEBRUARY: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO L.O.V.E. OUR BODIES??? In a culture full of whos and whats we should look and feel like around every corner, life can get pretty confusing, particularly about our health and our bodies. Eating disorders of all kinds are at an all-time high in our world right now, not only including the USA. We have to learn how to look at all the fake imagery sent our way out there and filter through what is realistic and what is truly beautiful. Growing up, I was always a bit bigger than my friends around me; not a big girl, just a bigger size, bigger bones, more of a muscular build. I always felt self conscious... now a mom and (let's not sugar coat it) struggling with truly being overweight, I wish I could go back to my teenage self and say, "STOP! Look at yourself! You are the most beautiful and thin and in shape you will ever be, so enjoy it and put on those damn short shorts and strut! So what if you are a size 7 and she is a size 2!" But looking back, I just always thought I could be skinnier, prettier, more blonde, more brunette, more this or that... How much time I wasted thinking such negative thoughts about myself. Well, no more. Yes I am struggling with weight and body image now as a new mom and as someone who has a thyroid condition and let's face it — as someone who just loves to sit her buns on the couch and watch Netflix with whatever free time I can get nowadays. But here is a new campaign I am starting myself on. I am calling it L.O.V.E. your body. I truly hope all you gorgeous people out there can join me in uplifting yourself to a new healthy standard of what true beauty is.
By Courtney Maurer9 years ago in Viva
How My Body Shamers Got Me to Shame Myself
So where do I begin? Where do I even begin to start when I have endured over ten years of cruel and mean insults? Insulted, "joked" toward and beaten up emotionally about my body. How do I even begin to address these people? Well here goes nothing, let me tell you how I felt.
By Alexis Quintana9 years ago in Viva
To the Girl Struggling With Body Image
To the girl struggling with body image, One of the most important things I have learned in my short 19 years on this earth, is that loving yourself is 100 percent unnegotiable and necessary if you ever want to be happy. Truly happy. If you were to ask 12-year-old me to name anything about herself that she unconditionally loved, her list would consist of absolutely nothing. Granted, 12 is a hard age for just about anyone, but the idea that the entirety of your worth came solely from your physical appearance was so engrained into 12-year-old Grace’s head, that it stuck, and unfortunately followed her everywhere for a long time. For everything and anything that went wrong in my life throughout my middle/high school years, I somehow found a way to blame it on the way I looked. I would avoid meeting new people for the fear that they would think I was ugly. I would avoid standing up for myself for the fear that someone might use the word fat as a comeback, and slowly but surely, my obsession with being as beautiful as I thought I should have been completely overrode the outgoing, smart person that was underneath. This mindset later developed into an eating disorder known as bulimia nervosa. For a long time, my relationship with food, my body, and self-control was not only unhealthy, but it hindered me completely from seeing everything in my life that I should have been thankful for. After being in recovery from my eating disorder for almost two years now, I like to keep a journal to be able to look back on the lessons that stood out to me the most when it came to really changing the way I viewed the world. These are a few of the most important ones:
By Grace D'Aprile9 years ago in Viva
A Woman's Period
What is the menstrual cycle? If you are reading this, you probably need advice about your menstrual cycle. Don't worry, you came to the right place. If you don't know what it is, menstruation is a monthly shedding of a female's uterine lining; it lasts up to 3 to 5 days on average. Your uterine lining contains blood that exits your body through your cervix and vagina. I know, it's a lot of weird words that might not make any sense to you, but trust me, this information will probably make things a whole lot easier to understand.
By shelby potter9 years ago in Viva
5 Reasons to Get a Breast Reduction
Today, many women from different parts of the world are faced with a number of problems because of having to put up with large breasts. This might be you as well. Apart from the stares from people, your body can be affected in more ways than one when you carry around boobs that are bigger than usual. Therefore, making an appointment to see a plastic surgery who can give you normal breasts might just be the answer to your problem. Here are 5 reasons why you should part with some of the pounds on your chest area.
By Lancelot Tucker9 years ago in Viva
Self-Love, the Golden Grail and Pussy Power
We live in a wonderful modern age where we can plug it in, connect to the WiFi and see what anyone is doing all over the world, live and in the moment. I love this about our modern world; I wouldn't be doing this right now if it wasn't for all the connectivity around us, I can reach out to anyone across the globe.
By Hollie Ash9 years ago in Viva
