Now here’s some flaws.

It’s not often, you would see a photograph of me in something above the knee let alone my swimmers, or God forbid my underwear. But after sitting back and watching the Jennifer Hawkins debate unfold over flaws and all naked marie claire cover, I felt that in this case words just wouldn’t be enough.

As Hubby and I flicked through the weekend papers yesterday and I saw the Jen pics, my first thought was: flaws and all my arse. Good for her for stripping down and good for marie claire for putting her on the cover un-re-touched. But hello people, if I had Jen’s body, I’d do the groceries with no bloody clothes on.

There has been criticism of ‘Jen bashing’ and saying she’s not real, and I think it’s a shame that when it comes to body image we get off track and sometimes don’t maybe express our opinions the way we should. All women of all shapes and sizes are real women. Some body types provide a more positive image than others, yes, and is Jen’s one of those bodies? Well that is the million dollar question.

Do I like looking at Jen’s body, and admire her hard work and/or freaking good genes? Yes, I do, and I can appreciate her as a lingerie model and her job that requires her to look a certain way. But out of all the women in the whole entire country, was she the right one for the magazine to make a stand? Probably not. Maybe the right person to make a little bit of ripple, but to try and cause a tidle wave of support for body image, for the AVERAGE Australian women, no.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have my head stuck in the sand, and I think that someone like me or fellow potential covergirl Kerri Sackville would outsell Miss Universe herself in the magazine stakes, (although I’m sure we’d give her a good run for her money), but it still saddens me that at the end of the day whether it was a close second or still the top priority, magazines, like marie claire have a duty to their advertisers to sell magazines. And shitloads of them.

And so here I am flaws, creases, cellulite and all. Why? Well why the hell not? I know I’ve put on weight, about 10kg over the past couple of years. And yes sometimes I have extremely unhappy and p*@$ed off days with my body. I hate my thighs and tummy every single day. But I also know that this is the only body I’ve got, and while I whinge and moan about clothes that don’t fit anymore, I know I’m not fat, but sometimes it still sucks.

But would you catch me like this standing next to Jen. Um, let me think about that. HELL NO!

UPDATE: So after pondering all this for a few hours I felt the need to add something else. Someone wrote on Twitter last night about how they felt when they saw Jen naked on the cover of marie claire. And basically it wasn’t good. I felt the same. I thought if that’s a flawed body then what hope do the rest of us ‘normal’ non-supermodel people have. Um, how about zero. Yes we are all very different shapes and sizes and we should all learn to love the skin we’re in, but comparing ourselves to Jen, which we would all naturally instantly do, is not going to help.

Lastly bravo to Madison Magazine who unfortunately didn’t seem to drum up the same publicity as Jen, but their spread on Aussie’s baring all was a little more comforting in that you could look at women of all sizes and relate. And that’s what we want. To see people who are just like us.

Summer, Swimmers & UGH.

I’d like to say Summer is almost here, but after last week’s weather, not only is Summer here, it’s graced us with it’s presence with a big hot and windy slap in the face.

So now that Summer has hit us, it’s time to drag out the dreaded summer attire of, yes you guessed it, the swimmers. Don’t get me wrong, I love Summer, but I’m more of a comfy shorts, or maxi-dress kinda gal. So the thought of having to put on a pair of swimmers is far from being my cup of tea.

I recently weighed in on the body image issue, you can read about that HERE, and trying on a pair swimmers just ain’t what it used to be.

I’m afraid I have to admit that I seriously feel like I’ve grown old before my time. Exhibit A of this would be standing in the change rooms trying on a nice simple black bikini and the bottoms don’t, well, they don’t properly cover your butt crack. Yes that’s right they don’t come up high enough, and if you pull them up you run the risk of your butt cheeks falling further out of the sides of the bikini bottoms. Painting a great picture ha! And is it too much to ask that the bikini tops actually cover something. Not everyone wants their girls hanging out.

I own so many pairs of swimmers that could fit all creatures great and small, and NONE, I repeat NONE of them are right. Why do we buy things that aren’t just right. Actually I think that’s a whole other Puff Piece! So I feel another ‘little black’ adventure coming on. In case you missed the first one: The Little Black Shoe (LBS) you can read about that HERE.

Where was I? Oh yes the new adventure to find the LBB, the Little Black Bikini. I can’t wait to traipse around the shops and try on a heap of bikini’s in those lovely change rooms with those even more lovely, HIDEOUS lights that make your skin look l like you need a chemical peel all over your body. Ugh. And don’t even get me started on boardshorts. Oh, ok I will then. You see, I see boardshorts now as a necessity and refuse to go out in public without my boardshorts on when wearing swimmers. But then when you’re actually in the water the feeling of wearing the boardshorts is yuck, with them all wet and riding up you know where and then when you get out they stick to you, and UGH.

Gosh and I thought I loved Summer. Maybe I’ll just stick to my lovely air-conditioned house this year.

What will you be wearing this Summer togs wise?

Weighing in on the body image issue

So while it’s probably safe to say I’m a little over the whole body image topic, I’ve decided that I’d still like to have my own say.

Not on the models in the magazines, the plus sized models on the catwalk, or lack there of, or the way photoshop is used to make even the tiniest of people look even tinier.

No, none of that. I’d like to talk about my own thoughts on MY body. Risky, selfish, whatever you want to call it, here’s what I think about me, myself and I.

My story isn’t one for the dramatics. I don’t have an eating disorder, and I don’t go to extremes with my food or exercise. Well I don’t really go anywhere with my exercise because I don’t really do any.

Growing up I never had a weight issue. I was naturally normal. I don’t like to say the word thin, because a) I don’t like it and b) you wouldn’t look at me and think wow she’s thin, I was you know, just a size 10. I never had to worry about bits poking out here and there, and was easily able to where usually whatever I wanted quite comfortably. God I sound up myself, but I promise you I’m not!!