Dear readers,
Those who have read my previous blog post will have noted that I hadn’t posted in a few days because I was feeling down. And here I write a post in order to explain why I have been feeling down. This post isn’t going to be easy to write but I think it’s important that I do this for myself if not someone else who is in the same position as me as has no one to turn to or to relate to.
I love summer as it is synonymous with fun and freedom. By April, most students will be done with exams and if not we will be shortly going on holiday and relaxing. But summertime does have some negativity attached to it, especially if you’re a girl. I will go into details as to why;
- We are taught to hate ourselves and be super self-conscious
So as everyone knows summer is approaching and the propaganda for getting fit for the summer or getting that ‘summer body’ is everywhere. But what exactly is this summer body? It seems to impose a view on us that our normal bodies are not good enough and that we will be ashamed to show our bodies in the summer time unless we have worked to produce this ‘summer body’. This means that gyms start to get packed and people start to do extreme exercise, however I am really against this whole ideology. Not because I think it’s bad to exercise, but because I believe that we should strive to exercise and improve our bodies all year round not only during the summer months.
And it is exactly this ideology that has been making me feel down because for the first time in my life I have decided that I am truly fat even though I am naturally slim. I am honestly sick and tired of the media constantly telling us that we are not good enough according to society’s beauty standards. We should love our bodies and strive to get healthy and not simply to lose weight
- Predators are out and about
Also, as it gets hotter, we wear less clothes and this is something NORMAL that we do. However, as a woman I have received quite a lot of backlash for dressing in a summer fashion and I know I’m not the only one. By this I mean men beeping at women in their cars as they walk past ones that they consider as ‘hot’ and men thinking that they can touch women inappropriately because they are dressed like a ‘slut’. I am so sick of this as well and I can only hope things change.
In consequence of this kind of behaviour I really don’t feel comfortable wearing dresses without leggings underneath or shorts unless I am with someone else or actually in a holiday resort where it is considered ‘normal’ (as it truly is) to be wearing summer clothes.
I guess I should feel more reassured since the British government started an imitative last year where you can text a number if you are harassed on public transport in London with the location where the incident happened and when it did. However, when I went on the tube I realised that there are no cameras on the tube compartments themselves so it is unlikely to protect us unfortunately.
Now I would like to end with a few words of wisdom:
5 Facts Every Woman Should Know:
- Everyone has rolls when they bend over.
- When someone tells you that you’re beautiful, believe them. They aren’t lying.
- It’s okay to not love every part of your body…but you should.
- No one has a flat stomach just after eating
- Society’s beauty standards do not define how beautiful you truly are
I just had to get that off my chest and I hope that by speaking about it we can raise awareness about it to eventually get to a solution.
Lots of love,
Charlotte xoxo
A Touch Of Charlotte 