October 17, 2009

Feeling good naked

This week I read a couple of Articles that definitely made me think.  The first was Tyra Banks article found here.  Now, I'm all for a girl taking control of her life and losing weight by working out and the like, but thats not the part that caught my attention.  This part did:

"I may be doing a little bit of TMI, but I always feel great when I don't have clothes on, unless the lighting is bad in the dressing room. But sometimes certain clothes, when I put them on and they don't fit the way that I would like them to, that's when I tend to get self-conscious."
Yes, I know, she's a former supermodel who made a name for herself by modeling underwear, BUT (this is the important part) she like all women has issues with her appearance.  Ergo, its completely normal for you or me to have body confidence issues.  What struck me the most was how much I agree with her.  I feel MUCH more confident  naked than I do clothed.  I think its because clothing has a tendency to highlight parts of my body I would rather not highlight.  Also, clothing can pull or be too tight or just not be the right cut to fit my body.  Naked, there is no such problem.  I'm not advocating that we all give up clothes and just go naked, but I do think its important to feel beautiful in your skin.  Women are beautiful naked.  We are built soft and hard and full of curves and straight lines that no matter the combination are absolutely beautiful.  
    Its taken a lot of time to come to the realization that I'm actually comfortable naked.  One thing that helped is a photograph.  I have a picture of myself, taken from the back, in which I am naked, that I absolutely love. It might be the angle, it might be the lighting, it might be that its black and white, it might be the way my curves look soft and young, but for whatever reason it is one of my favorite photographs of myself.  I bring this up because I think its important to have something that reminds us how beautiful we are and can be.  There is a photograph of my mom taken at Disney World when I was very young and she looks amazing.  She is smiling and looks genuinely happy as well as beautiful and full of life.  I know that I want to look back at photographs of me and see that same sort of beauty and happiness.  

    Since we can't always be naked I also want to talk about this article.  Despite being comfortable with my body when its not wearing clothes, I am a big fan of Assets (Spanx sold at Target) and other undergarments meant to contour the female body into the best possible silhouette.  I love wearing my high waisted shorts under a dress or pencil skirt to smooth everything out.  Now, I love my curves, but sometimes, they're just not as smooth as they should be or as I would like them to be.  This is where shapewear becomes important.  It increases my confidence by insuring that I won't have to worry about panty-lines or other bulges that can appear under clothes.   
   But the question does come up, what do you do if your man tries to come on to you while you're wearing shapewear?  Do you, like the article's author, tell the truth and that's the end of it, or do something else?  Personally, I think I would tell the truth that I am wearing Spanx and just go with the flow.  If he can't deal with the fact that I'm being helped by some undies, how would he feel about a push-up bra?  Or rather, how would he feel about my insecurities or my desire to feel confident through a piece of clothing?  I think that how a man reacts to the piercing of the veil of female mysticism, to borrow a term from corporate law, may very well tell a lot about how he will react to your bad hair day or hangnail or breakout.  
   It may very well be that my point of view is skewed because I live with my Fiance.  Anybody have any thoughts?   

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