As most of you know I am not a big lover of reading, but only two paragraphs in I was hooked. I was so blown away by some of her writing, that I just felt the need to share. This is the "sneak peek," if you will, into the photo series I am in the process of wrapping up. I'll let Ms. Starbuck take it from here...
She opens by presenting the controversy that most all females face: societal struggles and pressure regarding body image. She writes:
"Though we long for our lives to be formed & shaped & molded- transformed- into the image of God, we find ourselves more often squeezed by a culture that values & devalues us based on appearance....
...Longing to respond to God with our heart, soul, mind & strength... we're ashamed that we're losing the raging ground war against our inherent occupation with self.
The pickle in which we've found ourselves is that too often we've given image more weight, more importance, and more value than any of us are able to bear. This obsession with appearances has driven us to a binding preoccupation. We need to be set free. "
She goes on to add an excerpt;
"Let's Agree Right Now That These Things Are Crazy:"
"1. While many women black adolescent girls eschew their full lips & dark skin, white women are paying 1000s of dollars to have collagen injections & are getting cancer trying to darken their skin.
2. Many of us pay money to drink carbonated, chemical beverages with no caloric or nutritional value
3. Women with excessively large breasts, some who suffer horrible back pain, are going under the knife for reduction surgery, while women who want excessively large breasts are choosing to have the constructed cosmetically.
4. I have to expend more energy and concentrated effort to not over eat, than I do to gather the daily resources I need to survive.
She continues through explaining the "Make Over" field, marketable to any aged female, works the "You're just not good enough" concept to their advantage. She writes that the "heartbreaking message to girls and women (on shows such as these) is that they are inherently unacceptable as they are"
(And the best yet....)
"If your hair is brown, it needs to be blonde. If it's kinky, we should straighten it. If it's straight, we should perm it. Our hair is too gray, too split. Our features are too flat or too prominent, too think or too thick. If our face isn't oily with acne, then it's creased with wrinkles. During the narrow window of those two tragic conditions (love her), our skin is too dark or too light. Our upper arms are flabby. Our nails need polishing. Our breasts need lifting. Our stomach needs flattening. Our hips need slimming. Our buttock needs firming. Our body hairs need shaving. Our thighs need reducing."
I hope you laughed right along with me, in the hysterics of how maddening all of this is! And yet, how applicable to real truths that our society forces us to believe, every single day. Affecting all females, of all ages, of all backgrounds. This is why we have depression. This is why we have eating disorders. This is what fosters the comparison demon, the root to all destruction. This is it.
(I love how she phrases this)
"The sinister hiss of the deceiver, playing on the deep nagging fear in the hearts of so many women, implies that essentially something is ultimately flawed and wrong with them. "
She writes that so many of these liars want to "make over what God has already made and called good. It may not fit the world's standard, but it is good."
& When were we ever commanded to fit in this world's mold for our lives anyway...?
Stumbling upon this was just the final kick of inspiration I needed to take with me into this week as I finish shooting what I believe will be my best work yet. I hope that you will stay tuned and stand with me & Ms. Starbuck in declaring, "Enough, is Enough." That we will fight the ideas of needing to be more than or different than something that the Lord Jesus has already made and declared good and worthy. To what other standard do we need approval?
You are good enough!
((& to conclude, quoting the wise wordsmith, Bruno Mars,))
"You are amazing. Just the way you are."
*All excerpts from Unsqueezed by Margot Starbuck
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