“Wonder what the mirror´s telling you these days”, was a recent Tweet (https://twitter.com/halsey/status/1024550995190198272?s=19) by Halsey this past month. This is a question the vast majority of women grapple with on the daily. Images of thigh gaps and tightly toned tummies have arrested the minds of women for decades. From Barbie to Disney, the media constantly advocates for that ‘perfect body’. Such images have left women feeling less than adequate and consequently less than beautiful. As a consequence, we’ve jumped onto the bandwagon of every fad and diet promising that ‘bikini body’, in an attempt to reach an unrealistic bar society so kindly put in place for us…
The struggle for self-love is one we know all too well. Let’s be honest for a minute, as women, it is inherent for us to compare ourselves to others, to analyse our bodies in every way, and to judge ourselves from head to toe. How hard is it to love your curves when the world is telling you to hate them and that they’re disgusting? What if we could flip that destructive process on its head and start pouring love onto our stretch marks, dimpled skin and imperfections? What a powerful and healing process that would be. Well, with the curve revolution sweeping across not only the fashion scene, but people’s perceptions as well, hope has shown it’s shimmering head over that distant horizon, making that high bar set for us slowly start to disappear. It is instead being replaced with a flag telling every woman to embrace what their mommas gave ’em!
“Curvy”, “voluptuous”, “thick” or, as Ashley Graham loves to put it “curvasexilicious”, are words more and more women are starting to own with pride and sass. With ¨curve¨ models like Graham, Julie Henderson, Hunter McGrady and Precious Lee, the fashion industry is slowly starting to see the significance of representing women of all shapes and sizes. Along with celebs like Jordyn Woods and Demi Lovato, it’s made it so much easier for women to start accepting themselves when powerful women like these say “YES” to their own curves.
Beacons of hope like these women, as well as initiatives like the #BeyondBeauty campaign and foundations like the All Woman Project, are changing perceptions as you read this. The All Woman Project (AWP) aims to challenge perceptions of all women, with their unphotoshopped images of women of all shapes and sizes.
The AWP says that:
“We believe size, age or colour doesn’t limit us as models or as women. We believe all body shapes, ages and ethnicities deserve to be represented in fashion and in the media, helping girls worldwide feel positive and confident about themselves, regardless of what they look like or whatever “flaw” they might think they have. We love an unretouched, beautiful, natural woman!”
We definitely back that! Here’s to the curve revolution and embracing what our mommas gave us!