There is no wrong way to have a body, but in my experience, working with and loving my body is no small feat; it is an ongoing, uphill battle. Let’s face it, it’s so difficult to remain positive in a world driven by social media, mass consumerism, body comparisons, and the degradation of the body to push products. Our bodies are depicted as trends and places of public criticism. It’s come to the point where just wanting your mind and body to be friends is considered a revolutionary act.
Cinta Tort Cartró has transformed her platform as an artist to radically de-stigmatize our bodies, combat sexism, and educate her community about feminism. The 21 year-old Spanish artist has gained traction within the past year for her art and highly recognized Instagram zinteta that features bold imagery of stretch marks filled in with rainbow colors, vibrant multi-colored explosions on women’s underwear and legs to normalize menstruation, glittered scars, and photographs of flowers covering breasts and mastectomy scars to celebrate the body in her own interpretation of the #freethenipple movement.
Cartró says her recent artistic activism has been influenced by her own experiences and she wanted to create works that celebrated every aspect of the body that society deems shameful. It is the “flaws” that make us who we are, special and unique people.
On a recent post about stretch marks Cartró said,” ALL BODIES ARE VALID: Observe them, read them, discover them, love them. Stretch marks. From a young age, we are taught to hate everything about our bodies and are constantly being pushed to erase everything that is not “normal”: blemishes, freckles, hairs and a long list of other things… including stretch marks. Stretch marks are marks that many of us have on our skin… In recent years, I have started working on self-love and on accepting and seeing everything my body is made up of. To embrace all of this is to embrace your roots, accept every part of your body and ultimately, embrace yourself. Stretchmarks are a part of our essence, our moments, our lives, our stories and of ourselves…Don’t let anyone mess with everything you have and everything you are. Loving oneself is a revolutionary act.”
Recently, in my own rebellious act of self–love, I had the words “you are art” tattooed along the stretch marks on my hip. For me the concept of art is fluid and creates beauty in the chaos. If you look at any work of art, the process of making it is messy and riddled with mistakes. Art moves and flows, adjusting to varying pressure and change, but in the end art is beautiful because it dares to make people feel. It evokes emotion and regardless of whether you think it’s good, if an art piece can make you feel alive then it’s done its job. My body is a work of art because it’s in a constant cycle of struggle and retribution allowing for me to experience the world fully.
All bodies are beautiful, while none are perfect, they are alive and allow us to do so much. The act of self-love isn’t one directional or simple, as nice as that’d be, but a continual process of self-affirmation and appreciation for what our bodies allow us to accomplish. They are strong and even when they don’t feel like home, it’s important to remember how they allow us to navigate the world. While I know our bodies can turn on us, it is so necessary to look after ourselves and one another and to know that we are valid. Simply put, our bodies and our relationships with them are art.
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