Naked Lady Parts

A few weeks ago I saw an article on Facebook about a peaceful protest held at the Republican National Convention. It consisted of about 100 women posing nude, in response to the negative rhetoric towards women of Donald Trump.

Now hang with me, because I’m not here to talk politics. That’s not what got my attention.

I read the article, and there they were, the pictures of all those brave females, baring it all for the world to see.

And here’s what struck me.

They were all from different walks of life- but what I saw were bodies that looked quite a bit like mine. Two eggs, sunny side up. Round abdomens, full hips, sturdy thighs. Somehow, despite all those differences, the bodies looked more alike than anything else.

And that’s when I got the light bulb- what if this is what the female body actually looks like? What if this is normal? And what if the ideal I’m aspiring to is… not real? Like really not real?

This seems elementary, right? We all know this. We know that magazines are photoshopped and supermodels subsist on a diet of coffee and cocaine. But mostly this concept is theoretical. We don’t actually sit around staring at naked bodies for the sake of realistic comparison. Women (especially of a certain age and life experience) are not socialized to show their bodies in this way.

So here’s a strange thought- what if we’re socialized to hide, and this keeps us from seeing normal, so that we keep buying into what’s not?

I recently got together with my writing partners, Jody Lee Cates, and Audi Swift, and we talked late into the night on this very topic. About the pervasive and insidious nature of our culture’s narrative about the female body.

Towards the end of our conversation, this question emerged for us-

What would it be like to be free from it all? How would our lives be different if we could live completely untethered from the pressures of this narrative?

And you know something? We were stumped. The thought was so strange and foreign we drew a blank.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this question. What would it be like to be free? I still don’t have an answer, which is a very curious thing to me. And I’m wondering if I could invite you into our conversation?

I’m interested to know if you have an answer to that question, and if you might be willing to share it with us? If this resonates with you, take a moment to visit my Contributor Page.

If you’re stumped like us, would you consider engaging your imagination this week to consider what that new reality might look like?

I think there’s a lot of untapped potential in each of us. A giant nugget of solid gold brilliance lying dormant under the weight of a cultural narrative that’s selling us a lie.

I also think that the world could really benefit from the sharing of that brilliance. Maybe imagining the possibilities of that something new is the first step. I believe in you, in all of us, and I hope we can begin this journey of discovery together.