body
Feminism demands a future free of fat shaming, body obsession and the male gaze.
Modern Birth.....Is This the New Dark Age?
Last night I was sitting at a table with 12 women from all walks of life, just getting together for a monthly night out away from our spouses and children. Someone at the table had announced that she was expecting her first. Out came the hugs and congrats as this new mom to be shared this extremely exciting news. Following that came the birth stories, the what to expect, advice, and so on. As I was sitting there listening and sharing my own story I noticed that over two thirds of the women there had had a c-section or multiple c-sections. Most of them explained afterwards that they were told it was an emergency situation but in the end it did not have to be done at all. It made me really ponder my own journey of birth and sense of sadness crept over me.
By Megan Aylward8 years ago in Viva
"I Cured My PMDD"
I've been wanting to write this piece for some time, but I haven't been quite sure how to approach it. It's a sensitive thing. But I think it needs to be said, so here goes. There is a tendency in our community (that being women with PMDD) to get very...perhaps overly...enthusiastic about our discoveries.
By Cheeky Minx8 years ago in Viva
L.O.V.E. Your Body, Love Yourself
FEBRUARY: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO L.O.V.E. OUR BODIES??? In a culture full of whos and whats we should look and feel like around every corner, life can get pretty confusing, particularly about our health and our bodies. Eating disorders of all kinds are at an all-time high in our world right now, not only including the USA. We have to learn how to look at all the fake imagery sent our way out there and filter through what is realistic and what is truly beautiful. Growing up, I was always a bit bigger than my friends around me; not a big girl, just a bigger size, bigger bones, more of a muscular build. I always felt self conscious... now a mom and (let's not sugar coat it) struggling with truly being overweight, I wish I could go back to my teenage self and say, "STOP! Look at yourself! You are the most beautiful and thin and in shape you will ever be, so enjoy it and put on those damn short shorts and strut! So what if you are a size 7 and she is a size 2!" But looking back, I just always thought I could be skinnier, prettier, more blonde, more brunette, more this or that... How much time I wasted thinking such negative thoughts about myself. Well, no more. Yes I am struggling with weight and body image now as a new mom and as someone who has a thyroid condition and let's face it — as someone who just loves to sit her buns on the couch and watch Netflix with whatever free time I can get nowadays. But here is a new campaign I am starting myself on. I am calling it L.O.V.E. your body. I truly hope all you gorgeous people out there can join me in uplifting yourself to a new healthy standard of what true beauty is.
By Courtney Maurer8 years ago in Viva
How My Body Shamers Got Me to Shame Myself
So where do I begin? Where do I even begin to start when I have endured over ten years of cruel and mean insults? Insulted, "joked" toward and beaten up emotionally about my body. How do I even begin to address these people? Well here goes nothing, let me tell you how I felt.
By Alexis Quintana8 years ago in Viva
To the Girl Struggling With Body Image
To the girl struggling with body image, One of the most important things I have learned in my short 19 years on this earth, is that loving yourself is 100 percent unnegotiable and necessary if you ever want to be happy. Truly happy. If you were to ask 12-year-old me to name anything about herself that she unconditionally loved, her list would consist of absolutely nothing. Granted, 12 is a hard age for just about anyone, but the idea that the entirety of your worth came solely from your physical appearance was so engrained into 12-year-old Grace’s head, that it stuck, and unfortunately followed her everywhere for a long time. For everything and anything that went wrong in my life throughout my middle/high school years, I somehow found a way to blame it on the way I looked. I would avoid meeting new people for the fear that they would think I was ugly. I would avoid standing up for myself for the fear that someone might use the word fat as a comeback, and slowly but surely, my obsession with being as beautiful as I thought I should have been completely overrode the outgoing, smart person that was underneath. This mindset later developed into an eating disorder known as bulimia nervosa. For a long time, my relationship with food, my body, and self-control was not only unhealthy, but it hindered me completely from seeing everything in my life that I should have been thankful for. After being in recovery from my eating disorder for almost two years now, I like to keep a journal to be able to look back on the lessons that stood out to me the most when it came to really changing the way I viewed the world. These are a few of the most important ones:
By Grace D'Aprile8 years ago in Viva
A Woman's Period
What is the menstrual cycle? If you are reading this, you probably need advice about your menstrual cycle. Don't worry, you came to the right place. If you don't know what it is, menstruation is a monthly shedding of a female's uterine lining; it lasts up to 3 to 5 days on average. Your uterine lining contains blood that exits your body through your cervix and vagina. I know, it's a lot of weird words that might not make any sense to you, but trust me, this information will probably make things a whole lot easier to understand.
By shelby potter8 years ago in Viva
