Women you want to know...
by Jess McCabe // 14 January 2007, 23:41
When was the first time you were aware of your size? Piny at Feministe asked this question, and received (as of today) 151 responses, each more depressing than the last.
In response, another Feministe blogger, zuzu, challenged readers to come up with five positive statements about themselves. It makes inspiring reading, although most of the commenters found it a big challenge. People really worried about coming across as if they were boasting, just by saying something positive about themselves.
For some reason, most commenters felt much more confident owning up to liking their personalities and talents, but not their bodies. I guess it's a sign of how deep our cultural body-hatred has sunk that a bunch of feminists can't admit to liking their legs, for example.
One commenter, Jewel, says it best:
You know what I keep thinking as I’m reading these comments? So many of you say you feel like you’re bragging, you feel you shouldn’t be saying these things about yourselves because you don’t want to come off as vain, etc. But reading your self-proclaimed good qualities, I don’t think, "Wow what a bunch of vain, self-engrossed people," I think, "These sound like women I want to get to know."
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