Hi Ladies,
It's great to hear the positive feedback surrounding this blog and I encourage you to follow along and share it with your friends, family and work colleagues.
What is it about Australia that has us feeling so ashamed of our bodies? The same rings true in America, do we just follow suit?
A lovely comment was left on my Facebook this week in regards to Europe and their view on bodies. I have had similar experiences in Europe and found their view liberating, unlike the conservative Australians.
I know that Aussies like to think of themselves as laid back and easy going, however I really must disagree. I spent 2 years travelling Europe a couple of years ago and never had a felt more accepted, happier about my body and all round confident in who I was. I found that in Europe anything goes, their attitudes are one of a true relaxed culture of acceptance and free spirits.
Perhaps they have had to fight for their identities, perhaps each country struggled so hard to fight for their land and country, that they don;t sweat the small stuff anymore. Anyone who has ever been travelling in Europe in the summer would agree that on most beaches almost everywhere in Europe it is 100% totally acceptable to go topless. There is no shame, no laughter and certainly no inhibitions. Women of all shapes and sizes don a bikini and hit the beach often without a top on.
Women in Europe embrace their curves, age and sexuality. On a beach in Europe you will see tall, short, slim, curvy, overweight, healthy, aged, young all in their swimwear enjoying the beach and the sun, there simply does not seem to be a criteria for how a woman "should" look in order to enjoy the beach and swim wear.
In many parts of Europe there are public baths, in Istanbul, Turkey myself and a friend went along to a very famous public bath where you are literally washed by another woman. This isn't considered dirty, weird or even sexual. Before times of bathing facilities in homes, people would go once or twice a week to a public bath, where they would strip down and enjoy a day or half day having a bath and socialising with many different other women. Men did it to, in separate "bath houses" of course.
I entered the bath with a little nervous trepidation, however I loved the liberation of just being me and being ok with that. Letting it literally all hang loose and seeing other women just like me doing the same.
In Australia, we tend to see nudity as either sexual or dirty, as if our beautiful bodies should be hidden away. What message is that teaching the next generations? What are our daughters learning about their bodies? That to be nude is either something to be ashamed of or only used in a context of sex. When will be wake up and realise that it's how we were born. There were no clothes on us when we came out.
I understand that for society to function and for hygiene purposes, we must wear clothes, however isn't it time that we dropped the over sexualisation of nudity and simply embraced our bodies whole and completely. It's not about sex or exhibition, it's about acceptance and comfortability.
Since returning to Australia I have found it so much more judgemental, we have a status quo and people are expected to meet it stringently and if you fall below it or rise above it then you are put down and considered a weirdo or a bum.
Embrace your body, embrace your sexuality. Just because you love your body does not mean your arrogant, up your self or a slut. It simply means that you have the guts to love who you are inside and out, no matter what. Be the change you wish to see, if more woman embrace this and release their inner shine then that in turns gives more women permission to do the same.
So, spend some time in the nude in your house from time to time, get to love your body in the way that it was intended form, natural!
Have an amazing weekend and I look forward to chatting with you on Facebook, here on the blog or you can visit my site for your FREE "7 Steps to Shine and have ultimate confidence CD".
Katie Blewitt- The Confidence Coach
www.moreconfidence.com.au
3 comments:
I agree with you that we should stop seeing a naked body as purely sexual or dirty. As my own self-confidence has slowly grown I have stopped comparing every aspect of myself to others. I am proud that I can teach my beautiful daughters that everyone is exactly how they should be, and that everyone is special and deserves respect.
I only wish I learnt it a long time ago.
Maybe we can teach the next generation to be more accepting and loving than ours.
I am proud that you are writing these blogs, I enjoy reading them.
Love it Katie! I think what's interesting is the realisation that when we judge others for certain things like :being overweight, or being too short/too tall, too slim - it's a mirror for what our deepest fears are.
We're really afraid that We might be judged this way as well - and that creates a nasty cycle. So when we learn to release the judgements, we set ourselves free so we can All be comfortable in our own skin. We really need more of that. I love that you're addressing this.
Thanks for sharing Katie.
Katie, what an inspirational piece and it rings true in so many ways. My most liberating moments in life had nothing to do with me being nude, but the opportunity to see, feel and experience life in all its forms in Europe. Where nudity is a way to be one with nature, not for perves to come and hang. No air brush, no sucking bellies in, just relishing in the liberation of running from a scorching sauna to go roll in the snow. Being able to swim in the warm waters with my boobs liberated and free from gravity and straps. To laugh with mates as we strip for a midnight skinny dip to soak up every second of the moment without the worry of wet clothes later. Simple fun! But here I'm confined to occationally dancing around the house in the nude singing proud and loud of every inch of woman I am. I watched Portia deGeneres with Oprah last night on her desperate obsession with her anorexia. When she was at her lowest, just skin covered bones, she had to jump up from Christmas dinner to do star jumps to burn off her guilt at eating turkey and potatoes. Europeans would frown at the disrespect but we're conditioned to cry in sympathy. Thank god she had the guts to share her story in the hope it helps us all understand what an epidemic we are silently tolerating. Haven't learnt how to sign off, but I'm Nat Pomfret
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