body acceptance

Have you ever been on a seemingly endless road trip and asked yourself: "Am I there yet?" ...only to realize that your GPS says you have about eight more hours before your reach your destination? At that point, you probably felt like you were never going to reach the end of your journey, but even though you couldn't see the end point, you still kept going.

In my work as an entertainment writer, some of the easiest stories are the post-baby body reveals. You know the type: “Within three days of delivery, Celebrity Person shed any trace her womb housing a growing baby for the past 10 months! Look at those abs!”

As a kid, I prayed for big boobs. Shallow, I know. But such prayers were never answered. I hardly filled an A cup.

Recently, I was looking through some old pictures of myself.... Like every other person on this earth, I have my insecurities. As I was looking at these photos, I found myself picking out my faults, finding things that I would like to change, putting myself down for looking a certain way or not looking a certain way.

For the first time in 15 years, I didn’t have to ask for permission to get a haircut, so I chopped it all off. Oh, and I bleached it — from very dark to bright white. This was against the advice of everyone I had asked, all of whom told me to start with something less drastic to make sure I didn’t freak out.

This cautionary caveat was almost always immediately followed by, “What is your husband going to think?”

I always thought that once I had my perfect body that this ideal perfect life would manifest, but once I reached my goal body it was the exact opposite.

Where does my love for my body stop and my vanity pick up? If I’d spend $126 in a futile attempt to “resolve” the rosacea I didn’t even know I had, then why not $500 on laser treatment to effectively repair the damage of time? If I’d whiten my teeth, why wouldn’t I spend $4000 on braces? If I’d wear Spanx, would I have an abdominoplasty? A push-up bra or a breast lift? It Works wraps or liposuction?

Uh, in case you haven’t noticed, the body acceptance movement has a bit of a body rejection problem. Namely, anyone who isn’t a thin, white, able-bodied, straight, middle class, cisgender woman gets left out of the movement altogether — which, in my opinion, isn’t very accepting.