As much progress as we've made in terms of body-positivity, it can still be difficult to unlearn the things we've internalized about our bodies. Singer Mary Lambert recently opened up about how she learned to love the parts of her body that society still sees as "flaws."
In a post to her Instagram page on Friday, Lambert discussed the unconventional way she brought a little more body-positivity into her life.
"For as ~*body positive*~ as I've been for the last few years, I've still had a lot of internalized shit about my stomach roll and back rolls," she wrote on the caption of a photo of herself. "Yesterday, however, changed something for me."
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The game-changer? A crop top.
"One that accentuates my back fat, making it more pronounced," she wrote. "I almost ripped it off, but then...Y'all. I THOUGHT MY BACK FAT WAS CUTE. I looked at something I've hated/felt indifferent about my whole life, and yesterday found myself saying 'awww my cute back fat!'"
Lambert also referenced an interview she had read with writer Lindy West, in which West had said a few things that spoke to her.
"It is exponentially difficult to take care of a body that you do not love," she wrote. "Fat bodies are not thin bodies failing. Babes, a body is never wrong. We're all on our own separate journeys with ourselves, and whether the goal is to love your body or even just see your body as a working thing, with no projection of beauty is a radical idea in our patriarchal/oppressive/capitalist society."
While Lambert acknowledged that the way she learned to be kinder to her body had some privilege to it — "it took a new a piece of clothing to wake something up in me" — her message is still important. Learning to love our bodies might not be easy, but it is always a worthy endeavor.