the59thstreetbridge:syntheticpubes:by Sebastián López
This is exactly what my body looks like. So why am I not happy with it?
Apologies in advance—I’m going there.
I’m sure SP is a nice guy. Super nice, with good intentions and good manners, and a good heart. But how on earth could this picture have prompted a post that basically implies this photo and others like it are challenging the status quo? Like this picture is going to start a revolution of women loving their bodies? This woman is white, blonde, thin but toned, young—she is the epitome of the status quo. She’s exactly what we see everywhere all the time, presented as the way a woman is supposed to look. And the idea that she is somehow “normal” (what is that word supposed to imply in this context? common? usual?) in a way that’s transgressive, that she’s more “normal” (ordinary? with a body that’s easily attainable for other women?) than a model on the cover of Vogue, is delusional. She’s not even ungroomed, for crying out loud. I don’t see a hint of pubic hair and that eye makeup is looking mighty thick. This isn’t some earthy chic who just sprang out of the woods after having lived outside of regular society for a few years, with a broken tooth and old period blood smeared on her thighs. And she’s naked, but there’s nothing particularly sexual about her beyond that. I don’t see her at Mother Goddess incarnate or something. I don’t get why being attracted to her is somehow more authentic than being attracted to Taylor Swift or some comparable person.
I’m going to make a suggestion as to why you (you=any woman reading) hate your perfect and socially embraced body: because there is massive amounts of money in you hating it, and virtually every aspect of mainstream culture is set up to promote this hatred because it is so profitable and equally importantly it’s so goddamn mind consuming that it sucks your energy and attention away from things like gender pay inequities and lack of female representation on a congressional level and other manifestations of misogyny. Because we’re basically all taught to wait for permission to exist in this world until we look good enough for lots of men to want to fuck us.
So, is this (my) tumblr complicit in furthering that? Probably. Check my archives for pictures of women of color, fat women, women with no makeup, with stretch marks in full effect, with crooked teeth and uncombed hair. On second though, don’t, because it’s going to be a big waste of your time. I wrote once before, in response to an ask question about this but it’s worth revisiting again. I don’t have any excuses for it. I could defend it on a personal, it’s-what-I-like-aesthetically level. But if women who come to this blog feel like crap about themselves afterwards, I’d rather put a hold on my pointing to pictures that I find pretty than contribute to their self-hatred.
I wrote once wrote Katie West a rambling little message about how I think her body is nicer than mine and usually looking at woman with a nicer (“nicer”) body makes me feel shitty about myself, but something about the way her pictures are presented renders them non-threatening to my ego. I don’t know if other women find this to be true of her work, or some other work, or what conditions facilitate such a reaction but it might be worth thinking on further.
I am going to post a photo of myself naked. For the cause, because I am a fat woman. I’m a little nervous about it.