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The Sound of Us Body Positivity Blog Series and Giveaways: What is a Beautiful Body?

The Sound of Us Body Positivity Blog Series


What is a Beautiful Body?


What is the first thing you see, when you look at someone? Is it their loving heart? Their snarky attitude? How about the way the way their heart breaks when they see someone else hurting? These are not the things we see at first glance. These are things we see when we get to know someone. The first thing I see about a person is something about their body. Maybe it is their smile or how beautiful that girl looks in her dress? Whatever you see first is something physical. There really isn’t way around it. You will see someone before you get to know them.

Body image is a huge topic in today’s society. Not only do people worry about how others see them but they worry about how they see themselves. How many people look in the mirror each morning and pick on themselves on how they look. Do you have a list of things you want to change about how you look? Body positivity isn’t as simple as people want us to think. You may tell people that they shouldn’t worry about what others think about them, but at the same time, don’t you worry about what people think of you?

Over the years, body types have changed so much.

In 1910, the perfect body was a round; soft body gathered together but had a small waist. This is your typical figure 8 body.

Then in 1920, we have the stick straight flapper girl. She is completely straight no curves and flat chested. The look was to be as straight as an arrow. People didn’t want the figure 8 look anymore, now they were going towards a small bust and hips.

In 1930, having slight curves came back. We wanted to have a waist but still be fairly small. You wanted to have slight hips but not enough to be called curvy.

1940s roll around and now society wants to see broad shoulders and lots of angles. For example Katharine Hepburn showed off this look perfectly.

1950 is the age of curves galore. Women were supposed to have hips and a butt. The point was to be shaped like an hourglass. You were supposed to be heavy chested and have a big butt. You should still have some form of a waist though you wanted to be thicker than a figure 8.

1960 is the delicate and petite phase. Women needed to have narrow hips and not a pear shape. A pear shape was considered to be a bad shape for women. There was a period in this time that weight loss pills became all the rage. The average women were supposed to be 5’ 6’’ and weight around 90 pounds. We are talking very skinny women. This is also the time that Weight watchers was started.

In 1970 we had the disco era. Women wanted bell bottoms and jumpsuits. The ideal women were tall and lean. These women were definitely not the petite girls that society was used to in the 60s. You needed to have slim hips and a flat stomach in order to rock the fashion market during this time period. Women were starting to bring curves back but not enough for it to truly be an example of the modern-day woman.

1980s were all about tall, very leggy women. This was the time to show off those legs that you had. Sports bras were the rage. Fitness suits were used for regular day time clothes. For the first time in society, a woman with muscles was acceptable.

Then 1990 rolls around at he we are back to wanting small slim frames on women. This is when Spanx got started in order to help the portions of your body fit and place in different areas. Now we are back to a no curves area. Fat was not something you wanted to be a part of your diet.

You would think by the time we got to the 2000s we would finally accept ourselves but we don’t. In this case we needed the famous washboard abs. Having your midriff exposed was the popular outfit choice. Women would go out and get airbrushed tans in order to maintain that glistening muscled abs look.

Now we are to the present day of 2010s. This is when we are trying to become comfortable in our bodies but we still aren’t there. Right now we want a big booty and a thing waist. We are looking for an in-between size of a figure 8 and an hourglass. Everything is about a women’s butt now.

This is how society sees women. If you look at the way the body image has changed throughout the years; society doesn’t even know what they are looking for in a body type. For it to change every ten years should say something. It is not okay to objectify a women’s body and make them feel bad about how they look. That isn’t just on society. That is on us as people too.

I have been everything from a size 1 – size 12. Yes that is a huge range. I’ve also been a baby, child, teenager, young women, and more of an adult but still young. Your body is going to change as much as your age does. You are going to go through different issues in life too. People don’t take in account medical issues a person can have, or maybe someone is big-boned. Ethnicity can play in to a body type. I think the world forgets that being different is good and beautiful. I don’t want to look the same as everyone else.

I struggle with how I look all the time. I’ve gained a lot of weight in the last couple months and I’m not sure why. I struggle to find beauty in how I look because I don’t like how I look. I struggle with the fact that because I don’t like how I look that others may not like how I look either. Everything is a daily struggle. People are attracted to different bodies and looks too. One male could think that skinny is beautiful but another could think that lots of curves is beautiful. We shouldn’t judge each other by how we look. It should be about who that person is.

How do we translate this atmosphere into books? Why is it relevant? When you read a book, there are characters correct? *Audience nods* These characters have descriptions. They look a certain way. If these characters all looked the same, would you keep reading books? I read books because I want to read about a different life than my own. I want to get to know other characters and people. I want to see a variety of women in books. I don’t want every female characters to be skinny and in a size 0. Some characters can look like that but I want others to be different. I want to read about the girl who wears a size 12 and still loves her body and is completely confident or maybe someone who isn’t completely confident.

I don’t want a girl out there to feel like her body size is not okay because it isn’t represented in books. It is important that everyone knows they are beautiful no matter what they look like. There are people out there that suffer from eating disorders because they don’t accept their body image. It should be celebrated that we look different and that some of us look like an hourglass and others are stick straight. I think it is beautiful that so many people look so completely different.

Characters in a book are role models just like characters on TV or celebrities. Readers look up to the people they read about. Diversity is huge in the book industry. I don’t think it crosses anyone’s mind that body image is just another diversity that is needed. Different body types need to be celebrated in literature. You look beautiful just the way you are and I think that should be represented.

-Ali Kiki

Trailer: 



Review:


Kiki is off to summer camp. This summer camp is an opera camp and 7 scholarships will be given out to the students. Kiki wants one of these scholarships. Kiki is definitely a bit of a nerd. She was a fun character to get to know. I love her passion for her dreams. All Kiki wants is to sing. Kiki is this Junior in high school that is trying to set herself up for the future. Getting the chance to win this scholarship is a huge deal. Things start to get brutal when everyone is trying to get over kids reported and kicked out of the camp.

Kiki is a bit overweight and so because of this she feels like she gets treated as if she is on the sidelines. Her best friend ended up stealing away the one guy that she got the courage to ask out on a date. Kiki is trying to create a new her. Kiki ends up liking another camper named Jack. When Jack gets to know Kiki, he isn’t getting as closer to her as she wants, so she thinks that this is because of the fact that she is overweight.

I really liked how Kiki had to overcome her body image and choose to like herself no matter what someone else thought. This isn’t something that is always easy to do. Kiki ends up owning how she looks and acts. That is what I really admire about her.

I really would like to see more books like this. I think it is important to create good body positivity and characters that own who they are. These characters are role models and I think putting that positivity in the atmosphere is a good thing. The book was a bit slow for me but the story was good. I think Hammerle did a good job getting her point across.

 

 

 

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