Winggirl and Wingbi

Food before Dudes & Cals before Gals

So the theme of this chapter is body expectations and what we think about the standards society has set for our bodies.Enjoy!

Teddy
I have very mixed feelings about my body.One one hand,I love my body and I strive to take good care of it.I workout,I eat within a calorie range,(I know some people don't agree with counting calories but it is the best way for me to stay healthy personally,along with watching my macronutrients,gotta get in that protein right!?) and I try to be as hygenic as a teenager can.On the other hand,I have days where I blame it for not being as toned as I'd like even though it's my own fault it's not toned.
When I was younger,like 13 I thought I was obliged as a girl to look a certain way.Y'know skinny but with curves.Make-up but not too much make-up.I never conformed to these expectations mostly because I was too stubborn,however I did experience neagitivity because I didnt wear make up or whatever.
As we grow up we become used to these expectations put upon us but when you stop to think about it,it's quite cruel.
To raise a child and bombard them with messages that tell them their not good enough constantly.
Now at age 16 I've mostly nestled into loving my body and I workout and eat right because I have expectations of myself to be the best that I can be.I have been seeing inprovments in body body but somtimes I get impatient and just get upset with myself.I don't know if thats because I was constantly told im not good enough or if I'm just too hard on myself.
Being confident with your body also ties in with sexuality and sensuality.I always find it easier to talk to people when I feel confident in my body and in how I look and whats more; other people pick up on confidence and it makes you more appoachable.
To conclude,
You only way you will find happiness in your body is if it comes from within.All people have different ways of achieving happiness in their body and you just have to find yours.I'm still learning how to find a balance in loving my body and also expecting a certain amount from it,and I'm sure everyone else is still learning too.
P.S Sorry if this chapter is all over the place,I am very tired at the moment,its 3:21 am and I can't sleep.Really filling the stereotype of troubled artist lately.

Isabella
Food before dudes and cals before gals. I wholeheartedly agree with this statement. Now that I have kept my English teacher happy, this is why I agree.
Society has its fads, obsessions and ongoing trends since the 16th century, like Shakespeare. Lately, it is 'the bikini body,' and I hear this and I think, first of all, you want me to get a bikini wax, and now there's a body figure I have to have to wear the bikini. What, pray tell, happens if I wear it and you can't clearly count all my ribs. Does is sear into my skin, imprint the words, not skinny enough? Or yell at all guys that I don't have a tucked tummy and to stay away. Why do I even need a flat stomach?
Does it make all the guys drool at my feet when they can see my bones? Does it make parents tell their children 'be like her?' Does it make other girls envious, and encourage them to get one-as if a flat stomach can be purchased in your local TopShop? Or is it supposed to be a comfort to me when I watch ''The notebook,'' for the hundredth time and I am still single AF that at least I have the right body for a boy to like me?
As a teenage girl, who during her primary school years had self-esteem issues along with body issues in relation to my weight, mainly due to the girls in my class not liking me because I was 'fat.' I find it horrible that to wear a bikini society wants me to have a body for it.
I love exercise, I really do. I am the girl who comes out of P.E. encouraging the other girls to join in, having just run 2k on the treadmills, my face will be as red as a tomato. They think I'm mad, enjoying it. My body is by no means fat, but it is not what society deems 'summer ready,' my stomach is not as tucked as others, my thighs don't gap, and I have no problems with that. I love my body, and it took years for me to even think that thought possible, but, it was created by two people who love me, so it's only right I love it in return.
I sit and I look at these Victoria Secret models, and I see what they have to do to be models. And yes they are pretty, and yes they do work hard to become what they want to be, and I do admire them for their dedication. But then I eat some ice-cream because I could not centre my life around my diet and trying to maintain a 'perfect figure.'
There is so many pressures put on girls and guys in society to be perfect, and it's terrible when you see these girls and guys with eating dis-orders and body dysmorphia struggling to live each day.
Girls have to be kind and polite. Lady like in public, helpful around the home. Good to children and elders, respectful, patient, well mannered. Swearing is a no. Scratching certain places is a no. Body hair anywhere but your head and eyebrows is a no. We must be healthy in our figure and diet, but not skin and bones. We must be things that some of us can't be. Good home-makers, future wives, future mothers.
And while I love kids and I love love, I cannot be everything you, they, the world wants me to be. Because foremost I must be me.
Do not think I do not realise guys face the same challenges. Washboard abs, daily workouts, being fit but not skinny. Charming, emotionally attentive, a sole-bread winner when your partner has children and has to care for them at home.
We, boys and girls, see models and actors who are physically perfect. And we, struggle to perfect our bodies, to mirror an image of theirs.  As human beings we are created to be unique, to be different from everyone, as children we are told to be so. And as teenagers, we see the tabloids, the gossip magazines, the countless likes on Instagram, saying how brilliant they are, they that Is not us. And then we wonder why it wasn't us, and how we can be them. Them not ourselves.
To you, society I make a gesture my emoji's do not contain. To you Photoshop, I uninstall. To you McDonalds I order a milkshake, and to you, beauty standards I throw away the make-up that I don't own. Because I will not let myself confine to what you want when it is not what I want.