I could accumulate objects even if the people and life I loved and wanted more than any object were stripped from me ruthlessly, brutally. After my mother died, my father couldn’t bring himself to empty out her closets. My mother had been sick for a decade, declining slowly throughout my 20s. She had plenty of […]
There has never been a year where a woman’s bottom has been more highlighted in pop culture. I am a curvy girl, and most of the time I’m fine with it. I was the kid who let the ball pass by on the soccer field, only to look up from my nails after a chorus […]
This originally appeared on Eat The Damn Cake. Republished here with permission. “Real woman” is beginning to sound a little like an accusation. Like a failing. You’re the cold, pimply truth. And there’s no mistaking it: Being a “real” woman is all about what you look like. I got an email from one of those […]
If I choose to wear a low cut top, it shouldn’t impact how you perceive me. My breasts are still there, and you still know about them, whether I’m wearing a v-neck or a turtleneck. Once upon a time, a younger me was prompted to transform from a wild, multi-colored student caterpillar to a monochromatic […]
We all want to feel desired. But whose validation matters most? Our own? Or a man’s? These days, I spend a lot of time writing about valuing my body for what it can do instead of what it looks like, about how body ideals are less monolithic in practice than we think, and about how […]
