Its About Comfort

There has been a lot of stuff in the news regarding the human body and its appeal and health. No, not the usual bullshit that I tire of hearing about like how everything we put in our body is toxic but was fine before articles began telling you it wasn't. Or how no one knows what the words organic or natural mean. Or what it truly means to have lactose or gluten allergies. This is about two separate people in the news for different reasons.

The first is plus sized model Tess Holliday also known as Tess Munster. She is 5 foot 5 and has the size of 49-49-52. That last bit of information means nothing to me because lady sizes are confusing to me. Please, don't waste your time explaining them to me because I'll forget moments later. She is known as a body-love activist and started the hashtag (pound sign!) #EffYourBeautyStandards. “I created the hashtag because I was tired of being told what I could and couldn't wear by the media and how I should cover my body because of my size. I decided 'eff that,' I will wear what I want!”

Some are saying that her weight is unhealthy. Other support her confidence and say she looks beautiful the way she is. Me, I say it comes down to comfort. If she was in a point in her life where her size made it so she couldn't do what she wanted to do it'd be an issue. 

“I understand not everyone understands what I'm about. But to me it's such a simple concept. It's all about loving your body regardless of your size and chasing your dreams.” she said. Most things in life aren't an issue until you make it one. As far as I know she stands there and has pictures taken of her body for money.

Seems like she's doing well for herself. She has a husband she met on Tumblr and a 9 year old kid. She's in demand. I wouldn't suggest she do anything differently.

What bothers me about this is that people will talk out of the side of their mouth about her. You can't say “You go, girl!” one moment and think that you'd kill yourself if you weighed as much as her. We tell everyone to be comfortable in their skin while hating our own. We want the confidence of others but not the things that made them this way. Holliday was bullied and teased and left school because of it. Some would say she should've stayed and fought back. Either way, she didn't. She got signed to a modeling deal, got famous, and is happy doing things her way, fat or not.

The other person in the news is Caitlyn Jenner formerly known as Bruce Jenner. She had six children before transitioning at the age of 65. Most of you probably watched the interview on TV so I won't get too deep into that. “To be able to wake up in the morning, be yourself, get dressed, get ready to go out, and just be like a normal person. That's a wonderful feeling to go through life. I've never been able to do that; it's always been confusion, it's always been, you know, I've got one side with boy clothes, the other side's women's clothes. It's like I cleaned the whole closet out - the boys stuff is gone.”

This is another case of comfort. I couldn't imagine thinking I was someone else and pretending to be another. I couldn't imagine wanting to love my own sex but not because of what my family, friends, or religion thought. I couldn't imagine living life as a woman in a males body. Hell, I can't even pretend to be interested when I'm not. So I'm happy for Jenner...mostly. I say mostly because I think it sucks for someone to have children while knowing you aren't comfortable in your own body. But what's done is done. There ain't no going back now.

In both of these cases there are a lot of people that don't like them for being true to themselves. You can think that Holliday is big and unhealthy and you can think that Jenner is mentally confused. Or you can realize that it doesn't matter to you. One person said that Holliday was sending the wrong message and making it seem as if its fine to be overweight. If you're worried that your kid will decide to gain weight because of some model (the same way some do with skinny models) or that your son will decide to become a woman because of Jenner then you have failed as a parent at raising a reasonable human being. Thanks for that by the way. Gives me something to write about later.