It's important, I think, to give space and attention to what women's bodies really look like. I think we need to support each other in feeling healthy and good. Sometimes that comes from going to a Weight Watchers meeting together or going for a run with a girlfriend before the kids wake up or in lavishing a coworker with compliments on a new and fabulous dress or in treating your mom to a massage. And sometimes that comes by showing off our lumps and bumps and marks and jelly-ish bits so we all are reminded that none of us can -- or has to -- live up to bodily perfection.
When I landed on The Belly Project, a website I landed on for the first time this morning, I was reminded of how powerful it is to see our bodies up close and so personal. This blog consists solely of photos of real women's bellies, the women's age, and a list of how many pregnancies, miscarriages, abortions, and births they've had.
The Belly Project was founded and is tended two by a midwife and a sex educator who acknowledge the deep connection between reproduction, birth, and body image. Putting photos online anonymously, they say, is a way to " put our bellies in perspective" and acknowledge our collective abdominal preoccupation.
There is a sadness to these photos, maybe because the stomachs are isolated, maybe because there is a lot of pain embued in titles like, "30 years old, 6 pregnancies, 2 babies (1 abortion, 2 miscarriages, 1 stillborn at 28-1/2 weeks, 1 live birth)." Maybe it is because seeing misshapen and squishy bellies is a reminder of the body hatred we might own ourselves. Maybe because seeing flat, smooth bellies provokes jealousy or guilt or other uncomfortable feelings.
And still, there is this comfort of not only seeing the bellies, but in reading what other women have been through in having babies, losing babies, choosing not to have babies. There is such a range of age, experience, and body shape -- from "26 years old, 0 pregnancies, 0 births" to "60 years old, 1 pregnancy, 1 baby, menopause" -- and it made me sigh with relief to see I fit somewhere in there, literally and figuratively in the middle.
What's beautiful is seeing the bravery, the survivorship, the normality of living in the female body. It's also overwhelming. And why shouldn't it be? The honesty is a far cry from the retouched, made-up, cosmetic surgeried images we see countless times a day. Seeing close up how cut off we are from the realities of women's bodies (and my guess is, for most of us, also our own) is startling and a sigh of relief. All of it, the hard and comforting parts of viewing these photos and reading their titles, makes me want to cry. Cheer while I am crying, but still, there will very likely be tears.
Now, who is brave enough to get the the Cellulite Project going? Anyone? Anyone...?
What does seeing all of these raw and powerful pictures of women's bellies make you feel? And would you submit your own anonymous photo?
[photo credit: The Belly Project]
