From the Bottom to the Top

Hello lovely people!
I hope you are all having a nice weekend. On Monday I go back to work, and I'm excited while at the same time mourning my late mornings.

Today I'm going to touch upon how I feel about a certain part of my body, and what society tells us about this. It won't be The body post that I've intended to write, inspired by Klara of The Robot That Had a Heart. You can read Klara's magnificent body positivity post here. For me, that post will come another time, but it's more about a single part of my body... That was highlighted in these jeans.

Yes, my arse.

Since I've developed my "womanly" body I have always been pear shaped. That is, my hips and arse are wider than my top. Other than making jeans and trouser shopping extremely difficult, it has also affected how I see myself and my size. I often feel as if I am "wide" just because of my curvy hips. In reality though I'm a size small-medium. But my perception of my size is strongly affected by my curvyness.

These tight jeans, that I almost couldn't get over my arse, made me almost cringe at first. My hips looked so huge and my arse looked positively JLo-esque. Some of you may be thinking that it's not too bad, and that JLo's arse is one to strive for. Many think she's got a beautiful body (as do I), but the point I want to make is that it doesn't quite matter what others think. If you don't feel beautiful or like you are "the right size" nothing anyone's going to say will make a difference.

I really like Meghan Tainor's song All About That Bass, and I think body positive messages like that are brilliant, "Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top" - Yes! Great!
However there is a line in that song that bothers me beyond belief.
"Boys they like a little more booty to hold at night" - Big Fat NO!

Why should it matter to me if I have the "booty" that boys like. First of all, I'm no object that's here to please boys. What boys like couldn't mean less to me. We don't want a world where I'm supposed to think: "My arse is big, but it's okay because someone else (a man) will like it". Secondly, I think the whole reasoning is wrong. We want to live in a world where people like me think: "My arse is big, but it's okay because I can be the way I am".

I just think we're focusing far too much on what others think, and what society says is right and good. And I hear you, it's hard not to listen to all the countless of voices that have opinions about women's bodies. But accepting your body, big arse and all, should come from within. It should not be a result of a man giving you the "right" to accept it, as it feels like it is today in the world.

In Sweden there is a commercial for a matchmaking website where they say you shouldn't worry about your imperfections because someone out there loves them. Again, it's giving the power of body acceptance to someone else, when it is such a valuable thing that we should keep for ourselves.

I'm ranting now, but the point I wanted to make is that: Don't rely on someone else to accept your body. I finally decided that "Yes, my arse does look big in the jeans, but that's my body!", and it didn't come from someone else telling me "No really, you look great".

About this lovely knitted cardigan, that I feel has a 40's vibe to it. It's from Emmy Design, that makes vintage inspired clothing, and I just fell for this cardigan. Good thing too, because it's been so cold lately that woollen cardis are a necessity.

Cardigan: Emmy Design (here)

Jeans: River Island (old)

Heels: ModCloth (here)

To anyone who got this far, thanks for staying with me in my rant about this. I just want people to look to themselves for acceptance and happiness.

Much love,