Real talk…
Curves ahead.
Real women have curves, the saying goes, and yeah, that’s true, but…
As time goes on, society keeps trying to tell us what defines beauty. It used to be that if you wanted to be beautiful, you had to be model chic, tall, but not too, curvy, but not too, healthy, but not too.
Recently, the idealized woman has shifted to favour the athletic build, but there’s also been a move to celebrate women with curves. Busty. Women with some meat on dem bones, with some junk in that trunk, amiright?
Well, no, you ammentright. Because you’ve overcorrected. Instead of opening up the definition of what is beautiful, we’ve simply changed it. Instead of opening up the definition of beauty to include women with curves, we’ve now started to exclude women without curves. Instead of fat shaming, we’re now skinny shaming. Instead of “you could stand to lose a few,” we now say “put some meat on those bones,” or even “only dogs like bones.”
It has ever been thus. We as a society and as individuals want to phrase things in terms of in-groups and out-groups. Us and them. If you’re not for us, you’re against us. And so we’ve built this dichotomy. Skinny/Curvy. If you aren’t for one, you’re against it.
Hear me now. The trouble is not with the curves or with the lack of them. The trouble is that we are once again defining all women by one standard. That there is one ideal that must be met. That is, in the words of the immortal Colonal Sherman Potter, buffalo biscuits.
We need to stop putting down one group of people in order to try and lift up another. Saying that she’s not built like a Barbie doll is not really uplifting to her, it’s just insulting to the poor unfortunate women out there who happen to be shaped like a Barbie doll. In the song All About that Bass, Meghan Trainor says she’s bringing booty back. Yay! “Go ahead and tell all those skinny bitches that.”
Wait, what? No. That’s not the message we should be sending. We should be celebrating who you are, where you’re at. Got some curves? Great. Build like a baseball bat? Great. Because your goal shouldn’t be to fit some candle mould definition of beauty, but to be the best you that you can be: physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually.
But what is a real woman? I’d argue that is the wrong question. That we need to challenge traditional beauty standards and promote acceptance of all body types. To celebrate inclusive view of womanhood, where women of all shapes, sizes, and appearances are celebrated. There is no one "correct" way to look. Be authentic and true to yourself. It’s less about physical appearance and more about self-confidence and being unapologetically oneself. The question itself is wrong, because all women are real women, no matter their shape, colour or age.
And that’s the thing about going beyond boudoir. There is no standard that you must meet. There is no sign that says you must be this tall or this size or have this colour hair or skin to ride. We don’t ask for your bust size at the door, and if it is smaller than a C, you don’t get kicked out. Everyone is welcome.
Some women? Have lots of curves. Other women don’t have quite so many. And if they don’t, does that make them not real? Is a women who had plastic surgery “fake”? What if she had a mastectomy? Does that somehow make her less a real women? Again, duck nuggets.
We so often have our priorities in the wrong place. Don’t live life for the approval of others. Don’t let others call you too skinny or too fat or too brash or too demure or too much or too little. And more importantly, don’t be feeling the need to call other women that, either. Let’s be each others greatest cheerleaders.
And if you want to be celebrated for who you are? I invite you to sign up for a no-pressure, no-obligation consultation where we discuss your hopes and dreams for your very own boudoir shoot.