On body image and pressures to follow the narrow standards
In the world of cosplay, popularity is a relative term. But the cosplayer who goes by "BelleChere" is definitely one the more popular ones. Over the last 4-5 years, she became pretty well-known thanks to the quality of her costumes and, let us be honest, the way she looks wearing them.
To a lot of people, the notion that a woman who looks like this would self-conscious about her appearance would seem silly. When BelleChere talked about staying in shape, a lot of reactions could be summed up as "but why - you look fine just the way you are." But as anybody who follows her on social media know, it isn't quite that simple - and BelleChere is as human as the rest of us.
Recently, when answering a question dealing with her weight (and her breasts), BelleChere talked pretty candidly about some of the things she struggled with.
[There is no secret] other than loving yourself, that is. Realizing and accepting that society puts way too much pressure on women and their bodies (especially breasts!), which in turn translates to ourselves feeling like we ought to look a certain way. It took me a long, long time to accept my body - that I would never be petite, or have slender legs no matter how much I work out, or even be able to have pretty bras cause they just don’t exist in my size. But now I utilize being a brick house, I’ve come to appreciate my thunder thighs, and accept the function over form of my bras. Something I wish I could gift to other ladies is acceptance and being comfortable with yourself, but that’s a journey everyone has to take on their own to reach their personal destination.
Fitness is not just about looking good, but feeling good. Discover what you love about your body and hold onto that.
Recently, I've been trying to make some headway on a short Urbis Arcana story featuring April (a character who's yet to properly appear in anything I posted online, though that should change once I'm done with this story). As I've written before, I conceived April as a pretty, active girl who doesn't "look a certain way." phoenix_anew has advised me to do a story that tackles the issue head on. In trying to put it together and (without going into too much detail) I started thinking about conversations I had with many women who didn't fit the implicit expectations. About just how insidious this sort of pressure can be.
BelleChere's post just goes to remind you that, even if you admired by thousands of people on the Internet, the pressure doesn't really go away.
To a lot of people, the notion that a woman who looks like this would self-conscious about her appearance would seem silly. When BelleChere talked about staying in shape, a lot of reactions could be summed up as "but why - you look fine just the way you are." But as anybody who follows her on social media know, it isn't quite that simple - and BelleChere is as human as the rest of us.
Recently, when answering a question dealing with her weight (and her breasts), BelleChere talked pretty candidly about some of the things she struggled with.
[There is no secret] other than loving yourself, that is. Realizing and accepting that society puts way too much pressure on women and their bodies (especially breasts!), which in turn translates to ourselves feeling like we ought to look a certain way. It took me a long, long time to accept my body - that I would never be petite, or have slender legs no matter how much I work out, or even be able to have pretty bras cause they just don’t exist in my size. But now I utilize being a brick house, I’ve come to appreciate my thunder thighs, and accept the function over form of my bras. Something I wish I could gift to other ladies is acceptance and being comfortable with yourself, but that’s a journey everyone has to take on their own to reach their personal destination.
Fitness is not just about looking good, but feeling good. Discover what you love about your body and hold onto that.
Recently, I've been trying to make some headway on a short Urbis Arcana story featuring April (a character who's yet to properly appear in anything I posted online, though that should change once I'm done with this story). As I've written before, I conceived April as a pretty, active girl who doesn't "look a certain way." phoenix_anew has advised me to do a story that tackles the issue head on. In trying to put it together and (without going into too much detail) I started thinking about conversations I had with many women who didn't fit the implicit expectations. About just how insidious this sort of pressure can be.
BelleChere's post just goes to remind you that, even if you admired by thousands of people on the Internet, the pressure doesn't really go away.