When typing “belly” in the Internet search engine, most of the photographs of women appear with the consequent title of “Tips to eliminate the belly” or “Discover how to reduce it”.
What happens to us women with this specific part of the body? When did we begin to value appearance more than personality? When do we forget that we are much more than a physical body? How is the slim body related to the concept of health? Is a fat body not healthy?
With the hashtag #HermanaSoltaLaPanza, a few months ago women of all ages and throughout the country shared photos of their bodies. Real photos: in front of the mirror or sitting on the couch, on the beach or in the pool. Round bellies and bellies, with furrows or stretch marks, with and without hair: from fully developing girls to postpartum mothers, with their bellies still sensitive after eight long months of gestation, and grandmothers.
“Not one more summer covering ourselves up”, shares a photo of her, a young woman, smiling on the beach with her rolls. In another, a mother and daughter appear, with the message: "Seven-year-old daughter who suffers every day because they tell her that she is fat, a comment that adults have made many times."
“The fact that you now see photos of fat people in magazines and social networks is not promoting body fat: it is giving space to all types of bodies. It is wonderful to give space to people who have had to be hidden for a long time, ”reflects a woman on Instagram.
The #HermanaSoltaLaPanza initiative is organized by the digital activism project "Mujeres que no fue tapa".
It is a group that analyzes and questions what kind of bodies are shown in the media, starting from a humanizing and feminist point of view. Its creator is Lala Pasquinelli, an Argentine visual artist and communicator.
About the campaign, they explain “it is much more than letting go of the belly, it is letting go of the shame that we are sowed with millions of images that do not look like us. It is starting to get out of the learned hatred towards our bodies, from the shame of not fitting into a model created for us not to fit in”.
Acceptance
When reflecting on the physical body, many related concepts appear: stereotypes of beauty; the culture of thinness as a synonym of success, health and well-being; eating disorders that affect the mental health of thousands of people, both men and women; and mainly the physiological and social fact of eating.
In this framework, we dialogue from TODAY CÓRDOBA with the nutritionist Lucrecia Francioni.
The health specialist starts from psychonutritional, which she considers the person in an integral way, addressing emotions, genetics and their own history. The sessions are much deeper than going through the scales and complying with strict diets. "What things do you stop doing for your body, for the look of the other?", She usually asks her in her therapies.
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On acceptance, she makes a distinction and moves away from the concept of "positive body acceptance". There is nothing positive or negative, it is about acceptance in general.
“It is living with the reality that each person has and letting go of the tendency to deny, reject, resist and avoid one's own body,” she says. The sustainability of healthy practices over time is linked to safety, self-knowledge and self-care. Everyone has their own path to discover, build and disarm. For example, a diet may work for one person and not for another.
Many times the terrain becomes sinuous, there are questions and comparisons, whether due to social networks or advertising.
“In social networks, everything is mixed. An example of this are the tips or recommendations to accept or love you in such a way. There is no single form of acceptance. Each person has the process of it. Nor is it that when you weigh so many kilos or measure so much you will be able to accept yourself. When the person positions himself from stereotyped places, he loses his own value and affects his self-esteem, ”she says.
"Acceptance is an internal process of self-knowledge that confronts the system of social beliefs where to fit in you have to meet certain aesthetic requirements," she highlights.
in community
Francioni is 28 years old and in a short time she formed a virtual community on Instagram, with the account @ refugiar.te. She works from the perspective of gender and fat activism.
“Fat activism is understanding that there is health in all sizes. It gives visibility to people with fat bodies, who do not have to hide. This is affected by the use of public space, clothing and how everything is socially constructed for a certain type of body, leaving fat people at a disadvantage, in discrimination, ”she details.
"All of us can have oppression with our bodies, but fat people suffer from systematic oppression," she explains, adding: "We can't define people by their body mass index, it's very simplistic."
For Francioni, food is an expression of how a person feels. For her, a diet that imposes how to eat does not allow people to register their own signals of satiety and hunger. Food and self-care go hand in hand.
"We are not taught to prioritize ourselves but to punish our own body, often putting the other first," says the specialist.
Maybe the belly is an excuse to look at yourself, cheer up and accept yourself. For other people it may be other parts of the body. Although acceptance is a personal quest and journey, both the @Refugiar.te community and the #HermanaSoltaLaPanza campaign show that there is a collective way out.
“We are in time to change many things but it is necessary to open up. Self-love is collective”, she concludes.
