Naked Truth

This morning while dressing in front of the mirror*, I made an interesting discovery. When I look at my body naked, I quite like what I see. You know, I like seeing the curves and the contours. I allow myself to feel sexy, or even just secure in my feminine appearance, kind of like a strong confident goddess. I don't see my body as somehow misshaped; I think it is right in the average range as far as women's bodies are concerned: not too tall, not too short, not too fat, not too skinny, and without any visual abnormalities.

This is not actually my body. Image source: here.

But it is when clothes go on my body that my self-conscious thoughts set in. Something about the way I am used to seeing clothes on women's bodies--on mannequins in stores, on women on TV, etc., and probably something about the way clothes are made using generic patterns that don't actually fit many body types--immediately switches my thinking from "oo-la-la" to "uh-oh." Solution? We should all go about life naked and loving our natural bodies. Not likely to happen? Ok, then maybe we can agree to work to expand our view of women's bodies in clothes to include all variations of shapes.

*This is an interesting phenomenon in itself. How many women get dressed in front of a mirror, or definitely check in the mirror before leaving the house? How many men do this?