Beauty

As you may know, Jada Pinkett Smith graced the cover of the July 2010 issue of Essence Magazine sans clothing.

In her feature article, she spoke on her size-- being a thin black woman. She was telling the writer, Jeanine Amber, how she feels that women should love the way they look. She said, "...whatever you look like, you better be comfortable with it."

Jeanine suggests that it's probably easy for Jada to embrace her body because "what is she, a California-size negative zero?" Jada's response? "...Black men like their women with a little meat. All my life, Black men have told me how flawed I am. People may look at the picture and not necessarily be able to identify my woes about my own body, but I have them..."

I remember as a freshman in college, this guy told me I "would be a dime if I were thick." It used to bother me when guys would say things like that because I can't control how I look (It took me all four years in college to gain weight, and it was only 10 pounds Lol). It's like hearing that you're almost good enough-- but not quite. Thankfully, like Jada, I've learned to accept and love my skinniness (90 percent of the time).

I also think it's interesting that people don't get why thin/skinny women have body insecurities just like many other women. I mean, we get called 'bony,' 'sticks,' 'poles'; people ask us if we eat, what do we eat, how much we weigh, what size we wear and the list goes on and on and on. And the thing is, it's seemingly okay for people to do this to thin people. Newsflash: It's not. What if, as a big girl, people said, 'Oh my gosh, you're so big!' And asked you , 'What do you eat? What size pants do you wear?' You'd probably find it annoying and rude as hell. My point is, when you constantly have people telling you how skinny you are, how you need to eat and gain weight and how you're so pretty...but you'd be perfect if you were thick, it can cause you to feel insecure about your looks.

But like Mrs. Pinkett Smith says, we have to learn to love ourselves and our bodies, no matter how fat, skinny, tall, short, light, dark, etc. we are. There is beauty in our differences, and I wish more people realized that. But whether they do or not, we have to know for ourselves that we are beautiful and worthy.

What do ya'll think?