What a Lovely Student Life

                                                         Hey guys!

Recently I was super busy, either writing my essays or working in a restaurant. But as I submitted both of my essays on Friday, I can finally sit down, catch a breath, and actually post something here. First of all, I want to share with you a big news! I'm going to do an internship in a magazine called Interview. As I'm going abroad for the second term with Erasmus, I will get some free time in January. So I thought, why not, let's try to get an internship so I can update my CV with a relevant job to my degree, not just being a part-time waitress. I'm going to be working as an assistant, helping with a preparation of a new number of Interview. I'm over the moon and can't wait to share more information from behind the scene!

Other than that, recently I have been doing a lot of reading. Mainly books for Uni, so I will try to post some reviews about a couple of them. Right now I'm studying how to portrait and describe trauma and violence in literature. It is so interesting that I want to write an extra post just about this topic.

In the meantime, follow me on Instagram for some updates and I'll do my best to be more active on the blog.

Have a lovely week!

xx

23.09.2016

The artificiality of slim reality

I believe that I'm not fat. And yet, how does it come that I feel guilty every time I have pizza for dinner instead of rice and fish? Or when I skip a gym session and rather eat cake in my flat? Is it me who has the problem with self-confidence? Or does the problem have its roots in our society?

It has occurred to me a couple of times that every shop window I pass displays unrealistically thin mannequins. Every cover of female magazines promotes some celebrity in great shape with flawless skin and lush hair. Commercials depict models who spend six days out of seven in a gym, transforming their bodies to illusory perfection. So I guess that even though all my problem about my body is in my head, it has been put there by my everyday surrounding.

Fashion industry, with its unshakeable influence over the beauty rules, has been declaring that it wants to prevent too skinny models from walking the runways. However, it seems like this is just empty talk as the size of models doesn't cross number 36 (size S/6). The size which only minimum of female population can actually fit in real life. But how do you want to cease this skeletal madness? Especially when we are used to omnipresent skinny perfection staring at us from posters, so that any change  (such as promoting 'plus size=normal' models) would actually shock us?

Yet, not every glamorized poster gets blindly accepted. Last summer criticism was leveled against the campaign 'Are you beach body ready?', promoting the weight loss collection and implying that women need to be skinny if they want to expose their bodies on the beach. British people disliked the whole idea of the publicity of the product to such an extent that the commercial was banned in the UK. Nevertheless, Americans didn't see a reason to do the same thing in their country. On the contrary, they felt ashamed that their bodies didn't look like the model's in the striking poster. Which only demonstrates that the problem of body shaming and the idea of ideal body weight is much more complex than it seems to be.

The process of getting back to normal (which means society where a woman is not seen as a fat person when she fits size 40/M/12) is a long-distance run. We could start with banning commercials like the above mentioned. Yet, I believe that we need to go back to the centre of the whole problem; overcoming prejudice and, most importantly, searching for self-confidence in our selves. Mothers have to realize that their bodies, no matter how 'weirdly' shaped they are, are okay. Not everyone is a supermodel who is flawlessly slim two weeks after giving birth to her sixth child. Maybe you are asking why I'm talking about mothers. Well, because once mothers achieve enough self-confidence, they can pass it to their daughters. They can explain to their daughters that even though their bodies do not fulfill the artificially created perfection by skinny elite, they are beautiful. That there is no need for a thigh gap to be truly happy. That all you need to do is to embrace your own personal perfection, your own originality. Believe in it and then you will allure more beauty than any diet can ever offer you.

I know that it's really easy to put it like this on a paper. But it's much more difficult to actually achieve it in life. Therefor, I'm coming up with a beautiful example of a woman who is able to overcome prejudice of our society. Emma Haslam, one of the contestants of Britain's Got Talent, came to perform pole dancing. Nothing unusual, except the fact that her body was clearly exceeding the expected body weight of an average pole dancer. The skepticism on judges' faces was noticeable and didn't disappear until Emma performed her dancing number and proved to everyone that regardless your body weight, you can be flexible and sexy. Her energetic moves showed that it is not about your physical appearance but about your inner confidence.

So now I'm choosing Emma Haslam over skinny supermodels. I'm choosing reality over the media-created illusion. It doesn't mean that I will be immediately able to stop feeling guilty for every piece of cake I eat. Yet I believe that one day I will manage to love myself entirely; with my curves, small breasts and too noticeable teeth.  

28.06.2016

Get out when it's sunny