Vol.12 Issue 10 nov/dec 2016 | SKORCHMAG.COM | 44
Brazilian
women
are proud
of their
bodies...
different to how I actually appear, and
I don’t consider my size or appearance
to be my defining feature. I believe
what is inside a person is what makes
them who they are, and I consciously
choose to surround myself with
people who respect me for simply
being ME.
makes me feel comfortable in my own
skin, for most of the time anyway.
Although, now especially, I’m still not
entirely sure who or which group I can
identify with. Can you put a label on
your unique self? Can I jump between
identities based on how i feel? I feel
like we all do this to some extent, dayto-day, month-to-month and through
the years.
With my bodies’ journey so far I think
I’m a bit of an in-betweener. I know
what it is to be plus-size, I’ve been
skinny-skinny, sassy and slim, and now
I sit happily somewhere in the middle
of “average” petite.
So let’s go back to Brazil.
Moving here has awoken my sense of
cultural body image. New Zealanders
are notoriously ‘sun-smart’; our weak
Through my teens and into my
ozone gives way to a scorching sun
early 20’s, my body went through
and skin cancer is rife. We cover up
lots of changes, as you do, and I
and avoid flaunting our bare bodies
inadvertently shed the pounds and
to the sun’s rays. This is not the case
plateaued at a weight at which I felt
in Brazil. Perhaps there may not be
naturally comfortable. I slowly began
the same stress put on the risk of sun
to become the person I always felt like exposure, or people have learnt to
I was. Not just physically, but mentally adapt (or they simply don’t care), but
and emotionally. Okay, maybe this
Brazilian women are proud of their
was just me ‘becoming a woman’,
bodies and they’re not afraid to
flaunt them.
but I feel like this is something every
person can identify with. We are
Their hips roll seductively as they
always changing. My weight fluctuates stroll and they parade their plus-size
all over the place and this is fine, my
figures with pride. I can’t help myself
moods go up and down like a yobut subconsciously utter, “Hot damn!”.
yo, I feel sexy and I feel frumpy, but
“Damn”, that is a beautiful Brazilian
I have found a happy medium that
‘bunda’ [bottom]. “Damn”, I wish I had