Last week Friday I had the privilege of seeing mi dupz, Dré, perform live here in Atlanta, Georgia at Red Ultra Lounge. It was quite a fun event, to say the least. I have of late become a reggae concert-goer starting with seeing my boyfriends Christopher Martin & Khago perform then seeing the veteran and living legend, Capleton. It was only right that I go to support Dré locally here in Atlanta because it is only a matter of time before he is touring worldwide and this city will be a stop of many. It was a great experience to see Dré perform in such an intimate setting as he was eye-level with the crowd for much of his performance and yes you could find me right in the front of the crowd; rocking to the Dreggae musical vybz. To much of the audience’s surprise Dré had a guitarist provide the background for a few of his singles. I wished I could have known the lyrics to ALL of Dré’s music, but as you know I am a newer #teamDRÉ fan – so I am playing catch up when it comes to memorizing lyrics. The crowd response was very positive after Dré finished his performance and the night was kicked into overdrive as Shane Talon and Black Chiney provided the soundtrack for the rest of the evening.
As I look back at my preparations for that evening as far as hair, make-up and dress; I thought of the topic I planned to blog about today and found it a fitting recent reference for i&i to talk about.
The motivation for this blog topic came from a photo I saw on Facebook, some weeks ago. I don’t remember the exact post that prompted emotion from me after seeing it but the overall idea was about body image of women. As a petite female, I think society tends to think that smaller sized women have life easier than those who are heavier; which was the message being portrayed by that specific post on Facebook. It angered me greatly. Personally because I think people have the body image idea totally messed up.
For the most part, I know that many say I am blessed to be of a petite body frame and I do consider myself to be blessed because I am finally quite content with my body size BUT it truly bothers me when people, men and women alike, try to make it out that being smaller is something that we petite women have as an ultimate goal. I personally did not wake up one day and say to myself – “I will do all I can to remain small because I do not want to be larger.” The hate that is expressed for small women, bothers me outside the fact that I am one myself but simply because it is almost always expressed negatively.
I understand that there are women out there who do have an illness for which they watch their food intake extensively so not as to gain weight because they feel they are too large and that definitely should be addressed. But to group all petite women into this category that we are all plotting to remain small so that fuller figured women feel insecure about their body image is CRAZY. Because, in case you were unaware, petite women can be just as self conscious as their full-figured counterparts about their body size.
None of us are perfect, so small versus big is truly ridiculous to me. I think we as a society need to start placing our emphasis less on the outer appearance of a person and more onto the inner being. Women are constantly objectified in music and movies; I’m not saying that I have not being one to enjoy such music and/or movies but it bothers me all the same when people make comments about the petite women in the music videos, in the lyrics and in the movies. We all have that one thing that we are insecure about although we may give off the illusion that we are 100% great with everything. Beauty is definitely one of the higher ranking of women’s insecurities and I hope not only men but other women begin to rethink how they talk about other women. As hurtful as it is hear negative comments from men about one’s body; it is probably twice as hurtful when it comes from another woman.
So the next time you want to make a comment about petite women are better than full-figured women or vice versa; stop – if the comment is negative keep it to yourself but if it is positive share it with others. Positive reinforcements should be the name of the 21st century body image game.
Until next time – Namaste
#then1989 