The Woman's Body: The feminine image of God

Merry Meet,

There is a lot on the news and Internet about female body image. We are constantly bombarded with contradictory messages about weight and female beauty. It is so confusing, in one breath a news person tells about the rise in anorexia and bulimia and in the next breath, they are quarreling with some fellow news caster about calories consumed. There are these ads that tell girls that they are beautiful regardless of their size and yet we hold up rail thin, silicone enhanced models as the examples of perfect beauty.

I was a thin girl and teenager, my prom dress my senior year was a size five. But somewhere along the line I became a chubby woman, wearing a size 12/14. I have lost the weight once but to tell you the truth I wasn't any happier as a size eight. And I was a lot hungrier.

When Gaelyn came into my life after many years of thinking there could not be anyone out there for me, I told him that though I was happy as a chubby woman for myself, that I knew that men expected something completely different. He got up from the couch and pulled down this huge book called Images of God: Images of Women. He opened the book and laid it in my lap. In the book were pictures of all sorts of women, of modern times and antiquity. They were all shapes and sizes and hues, of all cultures and religions. He said "God made you the way you are now from the womb. Everything he does is beautiful. Why should I as a man not see you in the beauty and perfection he made you, why should I want someone who is made of plastic and poison (botox) and stains and dyes when I can have you. You are real, the symbol of the earth mother," Then he turned the page to the Venus of Willendorf, the mother goddess figure with the large belly and breasts and hips. "See, you are my Earth Goddess, you are beautiful!"

Well, he is as smooth as a baby's bottom, but he made me appreciate that not all men want what we see in the media. Some men will run with time warp speed to the woman with the fake boobs, but there are men who like the natural woman, thin or fat, short or tall, buxom or flat chested. We are all beautiful, and I don't need a bath soap to tell me that.

Brightest Blessings Be my beautiful sisters, love yourself for who and what you are and don't let some talking head tell you otherwise.

Aslinn