Truth & Beauty: Body Acceptance

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Body Acceptance

Body Acceptance is recognizing that you're not the prettiest girl in the room, and being okay with that. It's not pretending that there is no difference between you and her. Acknowledging the worth of inner beauty does not eliminate or negate the value of outer beauty. Having body acceptance means understanding that your worth as a person depends on a whole lot more than your physical appearance - not thinking that physical appearance has no importance.

I know I'm not the most beautiful model on flickr. And I accept that, because my character and personality enriches my work with a depth and style that makes it unique. However, I would be a fool not to recognize that the fact that I am at least moderately attractive is a huge benefit to my work. If I were considerably less attractive, I might very well not bother attempting the kind of photography I've been focused on. After all, photography is primarily a visual medium, and it would be silly for me to ignore the aesthetics of visual beauty as I approach my work.

"Image is not everything. But it is something."
Total body acceptance recognizes both of those tenets. And that is the truth about beauty.

Beauty is not everything there is to life, but it does have a certain appeal. Not everyone is intelligent. Not everyone is athletic. Not everyone is strong. Not everyone is funny. Lacking any one of these traits does not make you worthless. Find your individual strengths, and revel in them. Don't dwell on the qualities you do not, by chance, possess. You may regret that you are not pretty - well I regret that I am not even a girl to begin with. But I have other qualities that I can be proud of. My not being a pretty girl, while unfortunate, doesn't ruin my life completely, and it doesn't stop me from being able to positively appreciate others who are pretty girls.

So let the beautiful model, and do not condemn them for it. Meanwhile, if you are not counted among the beautiful, find the place where you do belong, and pour your heart into that important work. If you do, you are bound to find others who will admire you for it.

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Words of Wisdom

"Seeing a nude and thinking sex does not create sex in the nude."

"In a free society, what one encounters in the public square ought to be challenging, not comforting."

"Beauty should be a celebration, not a competition."

"Morality is what is right. Ethics is what are rights."

"I do not support a feminism that promotes war between the sexes, much less a war on sex itself."

"Beauty isn't everything, but it is something."

"Nudism is about nudity. But not all nudity is about nudism."

"A man cannot control his erections. But that does not mean he is controlled by them."

"Without content, there'd be nothing to sell. But content isn't what sells. It's the selling that people buy."

"Porn is not a monolithic entity - it is a vast and varied medium."

"I want people to like me; I don't want to become whatever it is people like."

"Diversity is the natural product of liberty. Resentment of diversity betrays a fundamental opposition to the principle of liberty."

Inspirational Quotes

"Rather than love, than money,
than fame, give me truth."
- Henry David Thoreau

"Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt..."
- Oscar Wilde

"Just because it is now, baby,
doesn't mean it should be."
- Stonefield

"Let us not talk falsely now;
the hour is getting late."
- Bob Dylan

"I look for truth and find
that I get damned."
- Tim Rice

"Don't feel like Satan,
but I am to them.
So I try to forget it
anyway I can."
- Neil Young

"The smallest minority
is the individual."
- Ayn Rand

"They're gonna talk to you,
and talk to you, and talk to you
about individual freedom.
But they see a free individual,
it's gonna scare 'em."

"Well, it don't make
'em runnin' scared."

"No, it makes 'em dangerous."
- Easy Rider

"What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?"
- Michelangelo

"We do not believe that the happiness of individual men, and the good of the total social organization, is ever furthered by the perpetuation of ignorance."
- Kinsey et al.

"What mad cruel god would give a man eyes and tell him he must forever keep them shut, and never look at all the beauty in the world? Only a monster god, a demon of the darkness."
- George R. R. Martin

"Yes, I am a libertine, that I admit. I have conceived everything that can be conceived in that area, but I have certainly not practiced everything I have conceived and certainly never shall. I am a libertine, but I am neither a criminal nor a murderer."
- The Marquis de Sade

"For I must tell you that we artists cannot tread the path of Beauty without Eros keeping company with us and appointing himself as our guide."
- Thomas Mann

"I think that women seldom appreciate the pervasive power of the male sex drive, so are constantly caught unaware. They choose to think that men look at pinups, sexy movies, and women in general just to annoy women."
- Piers Anthony

"The sexual act, successfully performed, [is] rebellion."
- George Orwell

"I think it's important to point out that there needs to be a conscious separation between the act of making art and the art itself. I always say that the best way to fight bad ideas is with good ideas. ... Not letting people access ideas or art is not the right answer. Things that are unknown are impossible to fight."
- Betsy Schneider

"Unfeeling, heartless creator! You have endowed me with perceptions and passions and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind."
- Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

"Touching boobs and rubbing fronts doesn't make you feel shitty; mean jerks make you feel shitty. If there weren't any mean jerks, it would be fine."
- Lola, from Big Mouth

"Oh beautiful, why are you so blue?
If you could only see the way I see you."
- Joe Bonamassa