Feminism Is For Everyone

Sep 5, 2008,9:56 AM

Being Naked.

Since we were little babies, us girls have had a heightened self-consciousness of our bodies. Bathing suits always covered our chests and nudity was discouraged.

I was always the type of girl that would change discreetly in the changing room instead of in the openness of the locker room, even when I was 7 years old. When I was 10 or 11, I went to Jamaica on a family vacation and there was a European girl at the resort who was my age. She only wore a bikini bottom and the group of American kids I hung out with and I were startled at how comfortably she exposed her bare (still not yet developed) chest. I forget what her response was exactly when we asked her about it, but it was something along the lines of it's no different than boys and I don't have boobs yet so why bother.

This boggled my mind for a long time since I was so self-conscious being naked or partly naked and had been taught that girls have to cover up. It's sad to think that in the locker room, I'm afraid of being seen naked BY EVEN OTHER WOMEN. It shouldn't be that way because everyone looks pretty much the same with just some size variation. As I got older, I became jealous of the elderly women who would roam the locker rooms stark naked like it was no big deal. It isn't a big deal! Even being naked around the opposite gender (or of the same gender depending on sexualities) shouldn't be a big deal because there isn't anything inherently sexual about the naked human body.

THEN LAST YEAR I came across an article in Newsweek's magazine for college students, "Current," called "Shower with Your Roomie and 33 more ways you can save the planet." Basically, the article was discussing how at one college, a few roommates took a group shower to conserve water. A student photographer took some pictures of three girls sticking their heads out of the curtain. Those pictures ended up on the official college website. The picture wasn't objectionable or inappropriate. It was just a shocking way to encourage students to be conscious of the environment.

So I decided to put some feminist ideas to work- loving your body or at least being comfortable with it and eco-feminism. Yes, I showered with my roomie. It was actually incredibly liberating. And we helped the environment. I recommend it.

Labels: body image, ecofeminism