As a photographer that has the privilege of photographing women on a weekly basis, I get to hear about the insecurities, the concerns and the way they feel about their bodies. I'm also a trend/statistic geek, so I enjoy keeping a mental tab on the parts of the body that women detest the most. I don't think it will surprise anyone to hear that the majority of women loathe their stomachs. It doesn't matter what size a woman is, the dreaded tum is the body part that gets the most hate from the most amount of people....unless they are carrying a baby. I have had the opportunity to photograph countless maternity sessions in my time, and women can hardly wait to show me their tums....cooing and awwing over how much they love this bump (which I get because the bump symbolizes what is INSIDE and of course, babies are awesome!). But as soon as the baby is born, moms and women are quick to cover up, squish and rage on their beautiful stomachs. And I get it, change is not easy. You go from being one size, to growing a baby, to loose skin, stretch marks, and an "transformed body" which you maybe weren't prepared for....but what stumps me, is the celebration of all tummies when it is for someone else (the baby), but a shaming of tummies when it's for the individual (because God forbid a woman love her tum [insert eye roll] and you may be the type of person that wants to start in with how concerned you are for my health and the health of other chubs, so if that's you, then kindly remove yourself from following my blog, my fb, and maybe just get a life in general...if that's not you, then YAY! You are an awesome human!)
And then, there are those of us that will never experience the joy of childbirth and seeing our tummies expand because of growing a human being...does this make me less valuable? I don't think so...I pay my taxes, empower women, am nice to humans, and do my part for the environment...I think myself and my tum are okay! But when women come in for their consult they talk about wanting to cover up their tummies...REGARDLESS OF WHAT THEIR TUM LOOKS LIKE!!! This drives me crazy, because first of all, when you are naked at home you will see the truth...you will see your tum as it is: this could be rolly, soft, tight, ab-ed(?), squishy, marked up, loose, swollen, flat, etc. so wouldn't it make more sense to get comfortable with what your tum looks like so that it's not "shocking", as many women have apologized to me about (which btw, bodies aren't shocking to me!)
So, when I was in Pittsburgh, I enlisted the help of my friend Paige Rynberg of Fearlessly You Boudoir to create what we affectionately nicknamed TACO-TERNITY photos. I don't have a blessed baby in my tum (and never want to), but I have a fat tum that is the result of probably too much sitting at my desk + Skip the Dishes food + genes.
Just because I didn't get impregnated with a human being does not make my body any less valuable to the world....just because I choose not to have a growing baby in my womb doesn't mean I can't celebrate the tummy that I do have, that allows me to go about my day empowering women left, right and center. I just think we need to be more okay in celebrating our bodies at all junctures of our lives and not just when we create life, because whether or not we choose to, it's just not in the cards for some of us and to think that we can't have celebratory photoshoots with our tums is kind of silly, don't you think?
Essentially, what I'm saying, is that there ain't no shame in the tum game regardless of what your tum looks like. It's there, it's keeping you alive, it adds about a foot to your height, it's a nice soft spot for cuddles, and most importantly, it's JUST a tum. YOU are more than just a tum. I'm not saying you have to do a taco-ternity shoot, of course, but you should be allowed to document and show off the body that you have right now because it is keeping you alive and providing you a vessel to move about the world affecting others in a (hopefully) positive way. If you are wanting and ready to celebrate your body as is, in all it's perfection, then hit me up with an email and let's document your amazing self!