Too Hot to Handle
Every summer, the body image issues I’ve tried to hide under winter layers come back with a vengeance; the hotter months make me feel isolated, exposed (in more ways than one), and anything but, well, hot.
And while I sometimes feel like the only girl on the planet who can’t work it in a bikini, research shows that I’m not alone in my struggle for body acceptance. A recent survey from Glamour found that a whopping 97% of women have at least one negative thought about their body every day (with a daily average of thirteen such mental barbs). Even more appropriate for swimsuit season: Shape and fitsugar found that 68% of women would give up sex for at least a month to get that dream bikini bod. While it’s hard to unravel the tangled web of influences behind such widespread body angst, there’s little doubt that the media, with its incessant display of ‘perfect,’ ‘sexy,’ ‘beautiful’ bodies, plays a significant role. While the success of kickass women from Beyoncé to Adele to Christina Hendricks represents a step in the right direction, it’s hard not to see that as a relative baby step in today’s airbrushed world. Most of the women held up in the media as beautiful or sexy don’t look anything like me, and even curvy role models tend to have unattainable hourglass figures. There are too many women like me—too many women who don’t see themselves in the media’s construction of beauty. But here’s the thing: I’ve been reminded, through the #MakeBeautiful project, that we all see the world differently. If there’s more than one definition of beauty for the world around us, why would there be only one for the people in it? As much as I struggle to see the beauty in myself, I can say with absolute certainty that I see it in the women (and men!) around me. —kc
Author’s note: I’m in no way suggesting that women are the only ones with body insecurities and who feel the effects of media standards; however, I can only speak from my own experiences. If anyone, male or female, has their own story to tell, I’m all ears over at
Tis the season for shorter hemlines— and I’m shaking in my boots.
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