Making Peace with Our Bodies

I am an officer in my local National Organization for Women (NOW) chapter. We just pulled off a Love Your Body Celebration, which went swimmingly. Heck, I even vended my literary wares, since representing body diversity in my novels is so important to me.  

 But anyway, I had the privilege of starting off the festivities and wanted to share my speech with my faithful readers. May you also find peace and comfort in your body.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our first annual Love Your Body Celebration. We’re here to honor, recognize, and celebrate bodies of all ages, races, sizes, sexualities, genders, abilities, religions, and so on. All bodies are good bodies.
I wanted to address the idea inherent in the name: Love Your Body. That’s not something that’s easy to do, particularly if you live in a body that we devalue and marginalize in our culture. Sometimes it’s difficult to like your body, let alone love it. I hope today offers all of us an opportunity to learn more about and perhaps make some space to recognize and appreciate, if not always love, our bodies. Our relationships with our bodies, especially when they’re unappreciated or subject to everyone else’s scrutiny, can be complex. Sometimes one of the most radical things we can do is simply to make peace with them. Maybe you’ll love your body; maybe you’ll just stop comparing it to unrealistic media ideals. But one step at a time, we can learn to reclaim the right to define, appreciate, and live our bodies.
We have an amazing array of speakers today that stretch throughout the day. I hope you’ll listen to all their stories and, if you’re inspired, share your own. And please feel free to visit our vendors or color a body-positive picture.
Most of all, thank you for being here and for joining is in this endeavor to make peace with our bodies. 

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