Loving Your Love Handles: Fighting Damaging Beauty Trends

I love my love handles. In fact, I love my waist and hips, too. I'm proud of my curves, and the unique shape and contour of my body. It's MY body, and I refuse to hate parts of myself just because someone tells me I should.

Various parts of women's bodies are under attack. The part of body deemed offensive by society changes. Love handles, tummies, and thighs seem to be the most recent parts under scrutiny. I remember when I was younger, there was an obsession in the media with having abs. Products and workouts to achieve a flat, toned stomach flooded the market.

Later, love handles also became an issue. If you have ANY extra fat or skin on your sides, you better get rid of those suckers in any way possible. I have even seen so-called "thinspiration" on Pinterest that says "Friends Don't Let Friends Have Love Handles," which is just absurd. Love handles are basically the least important quality I can think of when choosing friends.

More recently, thigh gaps became the desired trait. Never mind that it basically requires a specific bone structure to achieve a thigh gap without starving yourself, thighs were suddenly not allowed to touch anymore.

Plastic surgery is more and more common, with much higher rates among women than men.
Breast enhancement has been an ever growing industry for ages (no pun intended), and women are putting themselves through major surgery, often for purely cosmetic reasons.

Believe it or not, ever since the increasingly risque Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Editions, there is now a surgical procedure called "vaginoplasty." Yes, really. It seems that no part of a woman's body is safe from scrutiny, or the surgeons knife.

My purpose of this post is NOT to shame any woman who has undergone plastic surgery, or anyone who works hard to achieve their fitness goals. Not in the slightest! I believe every woman should be able to do what she wants in order to feel good and powerful and beautiful.

I just hope that before we, as women, can learn to not objectify ourselves. I hope that we can learn to love and appreciate our bodies for the amazing gift that they are, instead of picking them to pieces in self-objectification, shame, and hatred. I hope that any woman, before making the choice to have cosmetic surgery, will seriously consider the reasons behind it, and know that she is beautiful, loved, worthwhile, and powerful no matter what--and that really, our appearance has so little to do with who we really are and what we can accomplish.

Every woman deserves to love and honor her body, love handles or not. In fact, I'm evidence of the fact that, with work, you can learn to love your body, no matter what anyone else says. I know you can do it, too. And it is so worth it. Life is more fun and more beautiful when we love ourselves! And when you love yourself, you give other women permission to love themselves too.

For more information on recognizing the harmful body messages from the media, check out beautyredefined.org. It has been a powerful resource in recognizing and fighting the war against women's bodies.