Body Image Manifesto

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We are talking about manifestos in my American Literature class and our homework for this past weekend was to write and post our own. I decided to write mine on body image since it is something that I have struggle with, like many others, and my dermatographia has made it even harder for me specially with other kids is school. I know this is not that great but it is something I would still like to share with everyone here. FAT, GROSS, UGLY, ANOREXIC, SUPERFICIAL, VAIN. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will leave PSYCHOLOGICAL WOUNDS that will never heal. Women have to be the perfect size, perfect hair, and a flawless face. Men have to be buff, tall, and have no emotions. Standards that not even a mannequin can fulfil. Standards that photoshop cannot always make. Why do we do this? Why do we look in the mirror and see hate and disgust? Why do we obsess over photoshopped pictures of celebrities? Why do we try to become something that has never existed and never will? We always want to pretend that society is a third party to be blamed for all our problems. What we never want to talk about is that WE are society. I am beautiful, I am smart, I am confident, and I CAN CHANGE SOCIETY. We can. We can change the way little girls see themselves in the mirror. Little boys need to know that they can be strong without all the muscles and it is okay to feel things. We need our future generations to love and respect their bodies WITHOUT being told that without a pretty face or lots of money they are worthless. We do not use GUNS OR ROPES to end our lives, because we still want to be beautiful when our loved ones mourn for us. The cuts on our wrist, the pills we digest, and the foods we throw up to fit into societies standards of beauty. Hey Society, it’s me again. I'm not going to follow your social norms anymore because IT WILL KILL ME. I will no longer be your version of pretty because I am already my own version of BEAUTIFUL. A version of beauty that has big hips, thick thighs, stretch marks, and fat all over that I love. My beauty is a version of beauty that DOES NOT NEED THE WORLD’S APPROVAL. Nor anyone else’s. My dermographism does not make me any less beautiful or any less of a human. It is what makes me different and I am PROUD of that. I am not afraid of being different and neither should you. The scars and whelps on MY BODY may not be beautiful to you, but for me they are a story. A story that shows the brutal way that the standards of the world can tear apart someone who is so innocent, but CAN STILL LOVE THEMSELVES.