“You should think about going on a diet.”
“Wow! Too bad—you have such a nice butt, though.”
“Look at my abs, my flat stomach.”
“Come on, let’s sign up for the gym together.”
We’ve all heard this somewhere before. Literally, I’ve heard every one of these comments myself. Do I know why? No! Because to me, the body isn’t important: I’m not the kind of person who stares at other people’s bodies or who’s going to change mine just to please others. Because our bodies are far from eternal.
I’m a care worker at a long-term care facility. I see bodies every day—and not the kind you see in Miss Universe pageants. And you know what? Even if you spend 20 years of your life lifting weights to get a sculpted body, those muscular curves won’t last, and you won’t be “beautiful.” ” Even if you dye your hair a certain color, fill it with extensions, and wear bright pink fake nails, they won’t last—you won’t be “beautiful.”
What am I getting at? If doing this brings you something positive, if you’re doing it for yourself and only for yourself, I’m not talking to you.
I’m talking to those sellers of “dreams,” of toxic products, of workout routines created by a nobody in their basement. I’m talking to you—the one who keeps following me on social media with a username that makes it obvious you’re into fitness. Why all of this? Because I don’t have a “dream body”? And anyway, who decided that everyone has to have a body sculpted with a knife and molded to a specific standard?
It’s unhealthy to constantly insult and harass people just to get them to follow the diet you’ve supposedly created. What are you really doing? You’re attacking someone’s self-confidence. How do you think we feel after all that? Why did I write “we”? Because I’m one of those people.
My body has been threatened, insulted, destroyed, beaten, and violated. My body has been reduced to a little pile of sludge, with people telling me it wasn’t worth anything, that to be happy, it had to disappear. In fact, when I look at myself in the mirror or in a photo, I don’t like what I see. Why? Because that’s what I was taught: I was taught to hate my body. I was taught to envy those supermodels or actresses who go on all kinds of diets.
I want to ask you: what if I love my body just the way it is? What if it doesn’t bother me? I’ve had enough—I want people to leave it alone! Leave us alone about our bodies! Beauty is fleeting and doesn’t last. But actions and words—they are eternal.