Loving your body is an ongoing process, but it helps when you see women you admire not only accepting their perceived societal flaws, but enjoying them unapologetically. The Good Place star, Jameela Jamil, posted about boob stretchmarks on social media recently, urging women to stop worrying about their natural marks. Jamil has become something of a champion when it comes to body acceptance, where she started an Instagram account called @I_weigh in the hopes of sparking a movement for women "to feel valuable and see how amazing we are, and look beyond the flesh on our bones."
Not only that, but she also famously called out the Kardashian-Jenners as "double agents for the patriarchy" for the way that they endorse diet pills and slimming corsets, saying that they're "selling us self-consciousness." But that's not to say that she won't come to their defense, either. Back in February, when a meme popped up that tagged each member of the family with their weight and ranked them on their skinniness, Jamil swooped in to take down the toxic joke. She retaliated by posting her own photo, showing how she measures her worth. Spoiler: it's not through pounds. She wrote the words "I weigh" on her selfie, and then listed a series of things that make her special, like "lovely relationship," "great friends," "I laugh everyday." So basically, Jamil's agenda is to help women relearn how to love their bodies, and her latest tweet and Instagram post proves that.
On Twitter, she wrote, "Embrace thine stretch marks. They are nothing to be ashamed of or cover up or edit out. #saynotoairbrushing #letabitchlive."
Jamil had something of an awakening this year, where she had realized how internalized misogyny and her own struggle with shame has quietly affected her, all without her knowing. In a pinned tweet, she shared, "This year in particular has taught me so much about the struggle of women and our shame. Reading back old diaries, blogs, tweets that I wrote or remembering things I said and thought before I understood society, my own ignorance and sometimes even internalized misogyny like..." She is now on a mission to be more aware of how society has conditioned her to look at her body.
The comments under her tweet were encouragingly positive, where other women jumped in with their own thoughts. "I call them nature's tattoos :) They can actually be so pretty if we take a step back from societal norms and let ourselves see it... little rivers and patterns, reminders of our sometimes abrupt growth," one user wrote.
Jamil also posted the same photo onto her I Weigh account, writing, "I like all the big stretch marks on my boobs 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽"
Followers weighed in with their own musings, where one fan posted, "Stretch marks, wrinkles, gray hair and scars are roadmaps of our experiences. We earned them, sometimes with great trauma, but it doesn't mean they aren't beautiful. They are part of US, and just like any other badge we can wear them with pride."
Others confirmed that these types of photos help them accept their own bodies, where another follower commented, "I wish I’d seen more of this as a teen xxx"
The road to full body acceptance is a long one, but with activists and role models like Jamil, it becomes more and more attainable.
