I hope that wherever you are, Summer is treating you well.
Despite the scorching heat that runs through the Planet at this time.
Two days ago I was sorting old pictures and I saw quite a few of myself in a bikini, from when I was younger,
It's funny that now at 50 years old, I think I looked great, but at the time, I would have broken all of them. Time gives us a much fairer perspective of things.
This fact, together with the mockup that the Creatsy team has released, with my Shy Toucan print, made me think of the phrase: “Bikini Body” .
But what has made me sit down to write this post, has been the feeling that if I saw myself with critical eyes, before the existence of Social Networks, Filters and Photoshop. How do
women who are now living their youth feel like?.It must be overwhelming.
Seeing a campaign for a product for cellulite, ultra retouched, has been the straw that broke the camel's back.
We all like to look good, with a good face on Instagram, especially if we don't like to put on makeup, a filter gives you a good face in a click.
But from there, to removing decades, adding centimeters of height and stylizing the figure to be another person, there is a wide margin. Also,there is a difference between using a filter for Social media and not accepting that you can't look like with the filter in real life.
Especially in the case of influencers, models and brands that advertise miracle products when not even the models are in real life as they are in those photos.
When you're young, you worry about your weight, when you're older about wrinkles... so
at what point can women enjoy how we are?
The answer is knowing who we are.
If you know how you feel and you know that you are happy, at peace with yourself, healthy and strong, then the image in the mirror will be indifferent to you.
If, on the other hand, you see yourself with critical eyes (as I have seen myself throughout my youth) through critical comments from classmates, boyfriends, relatives... well, of course, you do not look at yourself with kindness.
A few days ago, seeing a photo of me in a bikini, with zero filters, in full sunlight, I saw myself for the first time as I was. But I don't remember feeling good at the time. In fact, back in the day, around May I always used to say: “I don't have time anymore” … time to have a body fit for a bikini. LOL
When we take care of our appearance to look good and not to feel good, there is a basic mistake.
When you start to take care of your diet to avoid cholesterol and diabetes, to have energy to create and do what you are set out to do for the day. When moving fills you with joy, when you finish playing sports and you feel strong, freed from toxicity, full of happiness, then you know that you are on the right path. Is there anything worse than exercising while counting the calories you are burning? Please!!.
I had to be in my 40’s to understand this.
That's why I carry my age very well because NOW the bikini operation is not something real for me.
It is a phrase that I hear at this time of the year but, lacks content and above all meaning for me.
I've been chubby, skeletal and normal. I stick with the words HEALTHY and STRONG.
That is the goal.
Everything contributes to weakening self-esteem, not just the unrealistic sizes of the brands.That has always been the case.
When I worked in Paris we started in size 34!! and we only got to 42. The number of zippers that customers in denial exploded LOL
Beyond that, you could only buy a hat or a bag in the store. (Not even shoes if you had very big feet haha).
But life is too short to try to change the system.
Designers parade very very thin people or very large sizes of very tall women.
The women around 1.60 cm, with normal bone structure, and somewhat overweight, are the least represented.
That silhouette is not reflected in fashion editorials, unless they are about actresses, like Kate Winslet or Scarlett Johansson.
Women!!, we have to enjoy how we are, at any age.
Without having to justify our appearance, whether it is natural or not. As Madonna once said: “I am not against cosmetic surgery, but I am against talking about it”. Natural beauty ceased to exist decades ago, almost all the women we admire for their beauty have retouched something. And what is the problem ? Is Elsa Pataky not beautiful? Or Bella Hadid?… I don't think that with a simple rhinoplasty any woman could be like them.
Despising women who use cosmetic surgery, in my opinion, is as bad as doing it for other reasons, such as weight, but nobody has a problem with that when it happens.
I've heard Oprah say that even she looks to other women her age as a yardstick to see if she's aging well. And it's true, you look at another woman who is 50 and you think "she is worse than me" or "she is great" or "she has gone too far with botox and surgery". If that happens even to Oprah, imagine to others.
We look for a consolation to be glad of not having succumbed to anti-aging surgery but at the same time we observe that things are getting worse and worse haha.
It is very difficult today to accept growing old like Audrey Hepburn or our grandmothers did! But I think it has to do with feeling very young inside and not corresponding with the appearance.
For example, Helen Mirren exudes a sensational energy that transcends her age.
We all have the right to enjoy the body that we are given at birth, improved or not, and that is the only one we are going to have in this life.
I spend the day using Photoshop for work.
You can do wonders today, and it's very good, if it makes you dream and brings beauty to the world.
But no one believes that Marvel superheroes exist in real life, right? So why believe that we can look like in fashion editorials?
Years ago they began to put the making off of the films in the extras of the DVDs.
Well, the same thing should happen with ultra-retouched photo sessions that are done to sell beauty products. The use of tweaks in those campaigns should be mentioned.
It is not something frivolous, there is a real impact on mental health because of this. The Wall Street Journal reported on how Social media negatively affects young people.
So this summer, take pictures of yourself, whatever your weight or age.
When years will go by, you'll be glad to see you and you'll laugh like I did the other day thinking that I didn't have time for a Bikini Body anymore. And above all, surround yourself with positive people who don't put harmful ideas into your head.
Before Filters and Photoshop, there were already factors that caused disorders in one's perception, toxic people who, especially in adolescence, could generate trauma for life.
How cruel can people be. There is no winner these days, Social media criticize filters, plastic surgery and also celebrities that dare to show themselves as they truly are like Camila Cabello, or mothers that just had their babies. They are supposed to have a Bikini Body months after… is like a race to see who recovers faster.
So, since apparently nobody can win this battle, just Love yourself and forget about all the non sense.
Wear the clothes you want, the hair you want and be YOU.
Gloria.
"Everyone has the age of their emotions."
Anatole France
Creatsy Mockup featuring the Shy Toucan pattern by Gloriasurfacepatterndesign.