Staple My Lips Together? There has to be another way!

Never mind fillers, botox, pills and potions. I found the answer, it’s so easy. If we want to wear the exercise gear promoted by those international brands we all love, and some of fashion labels we all love- it seems that we have to be the size of a toothpick, with gaps between our thighs the size of the largest ocean, and of course our hip bones must jut out profusely. The answer… staple your lips together! Wire your teeth. Don’t eat a morsel of food. There is no other way.

What the advertisers and those labels are implying is that us folk out there, the real people, you know, the ones with dimples on our thighs, rolls on our stomachs, a couple of extra kilos – the ones that they are shaming and humiliating into believing that we are unworthy because we are not waif -like, skinny and emaciated. The message is clear, to wear those clothes, to be a real woman, you need to be a certain look, to weigh a certain number. Yes women, it is suggested, are only women, based on their appearance. Appearance based on an ideal of someone’s idea of the perfect shape and size of women.

Sadly, in years gone by, we could blame patriarchy for this but unfortunately today, women are equally to blame. We are all caught up in this quagmire of chasing the ideal of perfection based on a photoshopped, airbrushed image of someone wearing the kind of clothes we want to wear but shamed into believing we cannot wear them because we don’t look that way.

I am going to suggest to you that you are so intelligent and savvy. You are indeed smarter than that. You have a voice, you have feet! Walk away from those brands. Voice your concern. DON’T BUY THOSE BRANDS. Be empowered. Be smart. Wear the clothes that are for real women. The ones that are made for you and I. The ones that make us feel good, even if we have a flabby tummy or big but. It’s ok. We don’t have to be perfect. Happiness is more important than perfection. Happiness is more important that skinny. Confidence is comes with feeling empowered and free. Free from being restricted, shamed and disempowered. So next time you’re browsing online and see those brands with the ultra skinny models, air brushed and photoshopped, move on. And if not, understand that if you choose to wear those brands, you want to feel good, it’s about a feeling. When you feel good, you can do anything. When you feel good, you feel confident, you can take on the world.