body image
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ike so many women, I’ve
struggled with my body image for
most of my adult life. I’ve grown
up surrounded by the message
that how we look is important;
that conforming to the slim, feminine ideal is
something we should be spending our time,
energy and money on.
But recently things have begun to change.
I’ve spent the last year actively following
people on Instagram who do not look like 9 0 s
supermodels. Women of all ages, abilities,
ethnicities, sexual orientations and body
types. And I’ve finally started feeling better
about myself. It made me remember when
I was exposed to a real variety of bodies in
the flesh, and how that was actually the most
accepted I have ever felt in my own skin.
I first went to Burning Man festival in 2009- it’s the largest art festival in the world, held
in a desert in Nevada. It’s a place of radical
Body image has always been
a source of anxiety for Katie
Antoniou but now she’s changing
the conversation – and so can youinclusion and self-expression, so people are
in various states of undress. To see so many
different types of bodies was hugely
liberating. No-one looked like women on the
pages of magazines; even those with
conventionally ‘beautiful’ bodies had stretch
marks, ingrown hairs, tan lines or blemishes.
We get so used to seeing the air-brushed
and re-touched that it surprises us to find
the ‘flaws’ we see in the mirror every day
are actually shared by everyone else. In the
middle of a hot, sweaty desert, make-up was
used as art; body painting, bright lipsticks
maybe, but nothing to ‘erase pores’ or ‘hide
fine lines.’ And as anyone who’s been around
nudity will tell you, after the first couple of
days, you just stop noticing and realise that
people’s bodies are usually the least
interesting thing about them.
Stories like this are increasingly being
shared on social media and helping a wider
range of people to feel represented and find
safe spaces in ‘real life’ too. Hopefully, every
time someone shares a story of their safe
space, someone else will be encouraged to
find, or create, their own. Read on to meet
six inspiring people in their safe spaces...