With all of my gender studies and self-esteem-building education since grammar school and through college, you'd think I'd get over the self-consciousness about not being stick thin. Not that I think I need to be. I've always known that I'm not a thin woman. Petite, yes. But definitely not thin. Maybe healthy. But why is it when I have to go to extended family events, the sick-sick-sick twiggy waif police are always right behind me warning that I could be trying just a little harder to eat healthier and exercise more intensely and more often too? Eckhart Tolle would tell me it's my ego. Still working on that. Always working on not letting my ego get the best of me. Just when my ungraceful self-consciousness gets the best of me, I am reminded that I AM A DOVE WOMAN. And there's absolutely no shame in that. Sure, I could be eating better than I am. I could be exercising more than I am. I'm doing what I can. And for what? Certainly not to look like the women in the magazines, especially when most of them don't look like me. Because I want to be healthier. And if I do feel healthier, isn't that what counts?
Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty is a wonderful ongoing billboard for girls and women of all ages and from all backgrounds. A heartful PSA whose message screams about freeing ourselves and the next generation from beauty stereotypes.
i am a dove woman
four feet and ten inches (or 58 inches total), that's how tall i am
34C, that would be my bra size
on a good day, my jeans are a size 5/6
on my fat days, i might be a 7
my abs don't have ripples, maybe a bit of a soft pudginess
my muscles aren't what someone would call toned
on any given day, depending on my stress level, my skin is usually not so clear
and if you look closely enough, sometimes my left eye looks smaller than my right
my eyebrows have always looked like i hedged them myself in the dark with my eyes closed
while makeup's a sure way to enhance my physical beauty
my true glow comes from strength in knowing that,
i am a dove woman
