Worthiness Has No Waist Size - Winnipeg Body Image Activist

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As a photographer I have a lot of tools and skills in my "tool kit" of tricks. So, when I took the above image of myself today I went through 2 thoughts: 1) ugh, my tum. And 2) the rest of the photo is beautiful, so I can just pop that in a bit I caught myself "in the act" and while I know that most people WILL think that bottom photo is better because I'm more "streamlined" If you don't think years of seeing perfectly contoured, smooth bodies and slimming/shaping commercials has an impact on how we view our REAL selves, you must be in denial. Why am I more worthy if my tum and panty line don't have an indent? Why is one photo more valued because I've eliminated what photographers now call "distractions"? It's only a distraction because someone told me it was where I should focus my attention when looking a a photo. Looking beyond my tum in the top image (if I get over my ego ;) ) I can see that my underwear had rolled down a bit and my tum was just doing what tums do. It's not good or bad, it's just what happened - and it's not a distraction...it's a fact! Even as a body image activist this shit still happens. My brain STILL defaults to fatphobic notions about what is "good" and "acceptable". This shit doesn't go away - but it does get easier to argue back against the initial thoughts and choose NOT to edit out the "distractions", thus providing me with the necessary exposure therapy to get used to seeing my body as it IS and recognizing that I am worthy of being photographed even if my tum rolls over my undies.

A post shared by teri hofford (@terihofford) on Sep 28, 2019 at 7:45pm PDT