I'm a fan of Kate Winslet. Her acting is intense and captivating. After all these years in Hollywood, she has been able to resist any artificiality, which I really like. She's a great role model for women, a role model for authenticity, naturalness and female power.
That’s why her comment the other day took me aback all the more and got me thinking. In an interview, she said, in essence, that XS isn’t a normal dress size for adult women.
As an XS-sized woman, this put-down doesn’t really hit me too hard, as I fit the current ideal and get plenty of praise. But the point is: I thought the whole point was that we learn to respect EVERY body. We need a new approach to how we, as women, perceive and define ourselves.
As a size XS woman, I’d like to say: girls, it’s not thin women who are the enemy. The enemy is the media, Photoshop and your own expectations. My body deserves the same respect as yours.
When will we finally be allowed to be more than our dress size?
When will we finally be allowed to just be ourselves and be left in peace? Unfortunately, what Kate is doing is exactly what she believes she is fighting against. I often notice that women try to feel comfortable with their own body shape by putting other types of women down. Terms like „skin and bones“ or „skeleton“ are just as disrespectful as insults directed at curvy women.
True self-acceptance means that you no longer need to compare yourself with others in order to feel good about yourself. Your self-love is genuine when it does not come at the expense of others. Anyone who can accept themselves lovingly can also let every other person be just as they are.
Love yourself as you are, not even though you are you.
A heartfelt „yes“ to yourself is always also a „yes“ to others just as they are. Self-love is a quiet place deep within you. I hope that accepting one’s own body will soon cease to be an issue altogether. At the moment, curvy figures are all the rage – but that’s just the same mistake in green, if it means yet another type of woman is made to feel „wrong“.
Women are beautiful in the way they express themselves. If they do not allow themselves to be authentic, they hold back their true self-expression. Live your true self and feel how you are meant to be. After all, if your relationship with yourself is fraught with stress, how can you face life with strength?
And to put my „skeleton“ in the right light: here’s a photo where it actually belongs. Laughter and enjoying life have a far greater impact on our attractiveness than our weight!
P.S.: Very few XS-sized women starve themselves. The vast majority owe their figure to their genes. I inherited mine from my slim mum and can’t see the appeal in starving myself at all.
