Love-spiration

In my work and research on the topic of self-love, body image and Size Diversity, the conversation usually gets stuck on "media literacy". By stuck I mean, it is usually where people hang their heads and say, "how could we ever change the systems in place that oppress us and make us feel horrible about ourselves"? It is where many conversations about self-love start and end. However powerful media has become, and social media- ("thin-spiration"??) talking about the images themselves doesn't help people feel better about their bodies.

If you were to show a group of women a magazine full of images of women whose bodies are contorted, photo-shopped and manipulated to sell products, it actually reinforces them rather than fights against it. This happens even when the objective may have been to look deeper into the validity of the images in order to realize they were made to sell you a product. Its like holding up a picture and saying "this makes you feel bad! Look at it and take in all the ways you will never be like this image". The focus on it alone can be re-traumatizing.

In my mental health work I have learned about working with people who have experienced trauma. The literature on the topic of working with people with trauma says that to go back and have someone describe it, look at it and relive it is actually re-traumatizing instead of restorative. What is healthier, is beginning to integrate the trauma into their experience and relating to it in a new and healthier way.

"While we cannot directly affect the images, we can drain them of their power.

We can turn away from them, look directly at one another, and find alternative images of beauty

in a female sub-culture; seek out the plays, music, films that illuminate women in three dimensions;

find the biographies of women, the women's history, the heroines that in each generation are 

submerged from view; fill in the terrible, "beautiful" blanks. 

We can lift ourselves and other women out of the myth-but only if we are willing to seek out and support and really look at the alternatives." p.277

The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women by Naomi Wolf

This quote from The Beauty Myth illustrates my point well. We need to drain the images of their power and begin to re-envision beauty that is inclusive and values us as humans with spirits and souls. What if what we saw in the media reflected more diverse and inclusive images of beauty? What if our conversation about "media literacy" was more about creating Love-spiration?

Call to all Love Guerrillas:  Resist. Fight. Create. Return to self-love!