What does “taking nudes” even mean? It means that you are able to be comfortable with yourself at your most vulnerable, but yet at your most beautiful! It is said that 80% of women do not like how they look, especially when it comes to their bodies. However, when you subject yourself to the type of vulnerability and openness that you get from taking nudes, you jumpstart a journey of body positivity.
Society’s standards of what is considered beautiful have conditioned me to feel ugly when I am fully clothed AND when I am naked. It made feel like I’m not worth even the first syllable of the word, “beautiful”.
Too many of us fail to see the intimacy and power of loving our body while naked because a majority of us think we are not allowed to feel like we can be naked. We continually allow ourselves to feel shame, embarrassment, and fear when facing our own bodies that define the physicality of our identity.
To this point, it has become an arbitrary and mundane ritual where we get naked to take a shower, get naked to change into our outfit of the day, get naked to be intimate, and yet we never stop and take a look at ourselves, to think ourselves as beautiful because of the shame associated with taking nudes.
Image source: Freestocks
There’s an assumption that if you were to take nudes, you’d be seen in a negative light where your only goal is to seek attention from potential partners. However, there is an innate power in the ability to take nudes. This innate power triggers self-love within yourself and for yourself, no one else.
To fully understand and acquire this, erase all assumptions of those that do take nudes. Whether we notice it or not, the reality of us judging those that take nudes is alive and well because there will always be that presumption that those that take nudes are doing it for the attention of others. In reality, those that do take nudes are so in tune with themselves and are not afraid of the world seeing their flaws. Most importantly, they are not afraid to face their flaws.
The empowerment of taking nudes comes from the eradication of self-hate and low self-esteem by the simple act of facing themselves in the mirror, looking at their beautiful insecurities and taking a picture.
Most importantly, taking nudes is just a tool to help you along your own self-love journey. For myself, pointing the camera at myself and clicking the button is what catalyzed my love for who I am and the body that I am in. Taking nudes won’t automatically plunge you into self-acceptance, but it is definitely a tool that you should utilize for your benefit, your well-being, and your beautiful self.
Image source: Jessica Felicio