The diet industry is built upon the idea that there is one good body. One right body. One beautiful body. The plastic surgery industry is positioned to help you come as close as possible to that one good, right, beautiful body should the diet industry fail you. Photos and film footage of the one good body are everywhere, and we cannot help but absorb them.
But if variety is the spice of life, if genetic diversity is essential to species survival, if different is good, then why do we believe it? Why do we believe that the traits that make us unique are bad, that they’re “flaws,” that they must be changed or eradicated? Why do we believe that we must strive for physical homogeneity? Why do we believe that there is one good body, one right body, one beautiful body?
My hope is that – with enough hard work and passionate rhetoric and conscious action – we can change the paradigm. That once the notion of the one good body is finally revealed to be a hoax, we will reconnect with our physical selves and appreciate what we have instead of longing for what we don’t. That we’ll finally get a more accurate representation of humanity, a broader idea of beauty, a deeper understanding of healthy, a truly diverse view of life. That we’ll see variety for what it truly is: A blessing.
Bodies are valuable, gorgeous, useful, adaptable, and downright miraculous. All of them. Never believe anyone who tries to convince you that there is one good body, one right body, one beautiful body. All bodies are good and right and beautiful. And that includes yours.
Images courtesy (clockwise from top left) the frog’s eyebrows, corazones rojos, black dress project, annaliviaplurabelle, bloomie, SweetNee.
Originally posted 2012-03-20 06:17:13.
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