It's Bathing Suit Season...Let's Start Rocking the Self-Acceptance!

I was trapped in line at the grocery store and reading the tabloid headlines. One read “Best and Worst Beach Bodies.” This seems to be a theme they come back to a lot. When they can't fabricate a story about somebody with two weeks to live and no celebrities are having a salacious breakup, beach bodies seems to be a go to story idea.

Of course there are pictures too but the faces have a black bar over them, supposedly so you'll be desperate to buy the magazine to see if your guesses were right. One picture showed a curvy, nameless celebrity in a bikini. The caption said “letting it all hang out” and she was in the “worst” column.

Why does it have to be this way? How come the woman with the “best” body can't be the one who is actually comfortable in her own skin? Why can't we shift the paradigm so that the woman (or dude) with the courage to accept themselves, as they are, at that moment, is actually the one we admire?

Most average people claim that they're unhappy with the supposedly impossible standards of beauty. So, if we're unhappy, let's do the idea more than just lip service. There is no mystical, all-powerful “them” who dictates what we should find appealing. If we want more comfort, more “regular-looking” people in ads and on the fashion runways, let's make it happen. We wouldn't let someone else dictate what we should find attractive if we were dating. Why do we allow it in our movies and out magazines?

Let's stop comparing bodies in the tabloids and in real life. How many times have you seen someone in some outfit and been judgmental? Instead of snickering about the real life woman in the bathing suit how about high-fiving her? How about saying “You go, girl”? How you think she looks, is irrelevant. And women, although there are judgmental dudes out there, we are way worse. Why would we do this to each other?

Recently, I looked at some pictures of myself. For a lot of people, this is more torturous than root canals and hypodermic needles. But I was smiling, happy, in the zone, doing something I loved and I looked really happy. And dare I say it, beautiful. Despite being overweight, despite any other issues I might have, I wasn't unhappy with how I looked.

Do we agree to dis other people's appearances because we can't mange to accept our own? Does it make us feel somehow less insecure about our own issues? Bottom line, we need to accept ourselves and everybody else too.  Let's stop with the judgement and just enjoy the day at the beach (or wherever.)