Body Image

I received an e-mail recently that got me thinking about the way we perceive our own bodies. When we're very young we revel in our bodies...they carry us around, they feel soft, and they eliminate waste. Somewhere along the line our parents or society instill in us a feeling of embarrassment about our bodies.

When I was a teenager, before Women's Lib, I forgot to wear a bra one day and was horrified when I discovered my mistake. I was about 14 years old and had very little to put into a bra and what I had didn't move around at all but I had been conditioned to feel ashamed to be out in public without one. That was also the year I felt I should be wearing a girdle but, thank heavens, decided they were way too cumbersome and I was skinny.

Over the years, I went from being too skinny to too fat and felt that at one time I must have been perfect but never knew it. Women are the most critical of their bodies and see imperfections where there are none. Or, if there are, they're so minor that no-one else sees them.

I've watched my granddaughters, with perfectly unblemished skin, lather on makeup to cover it up. I've seen beauty pageant contestants with boob jobs. I've watched talk shows on T.V. which show horrific aftermaths of cosmetic surgery. The body we were born with is a miracle unto itself and yet we are never satisfied with it.

If all the "improvements" we made were for health reasons I could understand it but we women seem to be searching for a perfection that doesn't exist or even matter. It is pure and simple social conditioning that has gotten us to this point.

I read somewhere of a lady who was desperate to lose weight. She said she didn't want to be thin, she just wanted to be comfortable. Now, I can relate with that.