Irina Gonzalez

I think anyone who helps others embrace and love their body in order to change our societal standards of beauty is ultimately doing a good thing. But I am very uncomfortable with the way that some body positivity advocates take “body positivity” to mean “You can’t care about what you look like,” or “You can’t care about your weight,” or “You can’t ever try to lose weight” I want to ask: Why not?

I landed at Miami International Airport knowing nothing other than that my Cuban father and Russian mother had decided to move our family there.

Properly cleaning it and putting on a condom just didn’t seem like a big deal. And as for the supposed unsightliness of an uncircumcised penis? Well, just too bad.

I thought I had dealt with my body issues before I decided to do this shoot, but it turns out I was wrong.