Taking Our Bodies Back

Having A Healthy View Of One’s Own Body Has Never Been More Important, What With Society’s Unattainable Beauty Standards Bringing In A Very Toxic Diet Culture, Unhealthy Food Habits And A Constant Race To Lose Weight. Here, We Speak To Three Women About What It Means To Embrace And Love Ourselves, No Matter What Size We Are

- JAMIE LEE

The other day, I tried putting on a pair of jeans that I hadn’t worn in two years and they wouldn’t go past my hips. I took a deep breath and sucked in my stomach but they just wouldn’t budge. It was clear: I had gained weight. At first, I felt upset. Had I been eating too much or exercising too little? Thoughts like that kept going through my head.

Until I remembered reading something online about how our clothes should fit us, instead of the other way around. So instead of focusing on the fact that I had gained weight, I should dwell on the joyous fact that I now had a chance to go shopping for a new pair of jeans. Or think about the truth that I actually look healthier and feel happier now as compared to before (backstory: when I had been skinnier, that had been because of a lack of appetite due to stress).

It isn’t easy to retrain your brain to think like that, especially when the word “fat” has so many negative connotations — especially for women. Kate Moss was praised for being so skinny that the term “heroin chic” had been coined for her. When Monica, in the TV show Friends, lost weight and became skinny, she immediately caught the eye of Chandler who had earlier made fun of her for being fat. A few years ago, IU’s extreme diet of vitamin pills, fruits, water and exercise went viral with YouTubers like S W and Yoora Jung gaining millions of views after trying it out. Unfortunately, the power of a weight loss transformation often means that you become “prettier” in the eyes of the world, and others automatically view you more positively.