⛹️
I have a very distinct and lucid memory of opening an arts catalogue to a page where there was an entirely plain, bland even, nude prominent on the page, and my grandmother walked past and said, quite loudly: “oh my, they’re nude….” Along with a muttering about porn. There is such a lack of genuine, mere, appreciation of the body?!?!! I’ve gotten flack before for just happening to be shirtless on Instagram. Nothing thirsty, no contorted posing…just the lack of a shirt. And I hate it! I love humanity and all the physicality that entails!!! Picture is a detail of a 17th century Russian icon from the Collection of Mikhail de Boire.
Dec 12, 2024
Related Recs
⭐
body is a vessel who carries me through life.
i’m grateful for the body i live inside and she needs me to be responsible for her.
body positivity is difficult if ur looks oppose the standard of beauty in your region. and i've observed a tendency to ricochet into body negativity from there. Literally no - that is full trash - shame, hatred towards yourself is painful and inconvenient and lame?
so in body neutrality - thoughts become ‘what do i wear tonight to feel good? does this meal need to ground me or energize me?’ and suddenly life is more sensual because one is more embodied in every moment. there isn’t that outside - looking in at yourself to monitor your perfection or lacktheroef - vibe which keeps us out of our intuitions and impulses.
suddenly you are liberated and …it’s scary at first bc u have thrown away the point of comparison which you’ve measured life against?
if that makes sense?
idk
Feb 1, 2024
@mothersuperior post on latex and the yearndemic reminded me of this essay that I read a few years ago about the commodification and fetishization of the body and how it’s been paralleled with a lack of chemistry and sexuality that we used to see on screen. The title is your tldr: everyone is hot and no one is horny. The sterilization of sexuality and sex is everywhere, past even film. It’s a response to the acceleration of capitalism, war and colonial extraction of the earth. It has crept into the ways we view ourselves, our experience and our bodies.
One thing I took away from this essay is that to align yourself with traditional beauty standards will make you too tired to fuck. Similarly, the whole « working on yourself » grind that I heard on first dates all the time is this strange, individualistic perspective that makes you too exhausted and distracted for the holistic chemistry we desire. We flatten our lives to marketable lines that make us appear attractive - I’m working on myself, I’ve been going to therapy, I have a nice job and apartment. And while people are obviously horny, they don’t know for what - forming our bodies to be better, our minds fixed and correct, we can’t pinpoint what the purpose is cause we’re too fucking exhausted to investigate further than that. Love, desire, and chemistry feel more and more elusive.
For us to morph ourselves into the image of sexiness according to western beauty standards, there is sacrifice (nutrients, your current corporeal form, the ability to be perceived as more than an object, working long hours for your grind) that doesn’t align with sensuality (unless you’re into that). There is no room for the spectrum of sensations you body is capable of feeling. There is no room for desire when we’ve given it all up the capitalist war machine. :p
4d ago
📝
Naked or not, I’m a costume that moves, figurine with a face that changes. You could call me a mood. I begin cheerful but sometimes turn solemn when confronted with my own mythology (wolf in a cape, cat scratch on a cupboard door, mouse tail in the hand of a bland farmer’s wife, a drop of blood on her shoe). Today’s beginning ended in a dream. In a fantastical bed, a lover leaned in to kiss me just as I realized I was part machine, part primitive urge. I left the bed and said, You know, don’t you, not everyone is so disposed. And then I heard from inside my head, You should say, not everyone is so disposed to your utopia. Only then did I realize I’d been inexact. Even here there are scolds that tell you how to be. Sometimes they live inside. Naked or not, I am trying to tuck my arms invisibly behind my back so that all you can see are my breasts and my highly simplified head.
Jul 17, 2024
Top Recs from @cerealamerika
I will continue to wear dresses like this until the day I die and no one can stop me
Dec 14, 2024
😃
Tell that café person you like their sweater! This once led to me forming a band with them
Dec 14, 2024
Sometimes, if my cat really wants my attention, he‘ll grab my leg loosely and bite me, where it hurts for a bit but leaves no mark nor blood. It’s not quite fun- but I think it serves a meaningful place in life
Dec 12, 2024