How 1,000 Women Feel & Talk About Other People’s Bodies — & Their Own

Between all the chatter about online body-shaming; Mean Girls-style trash-talking; and ugly, body-based tabloid speculation, it’s pretty much assumed that women can’t say anything nice about other women’s bodies — and that they’re definitely not holding back from saying anything at all. So we’re here with some much-needed good news: It actually isn’t true! For the third year in a row, we asked our readers how they’re really feeling about their bodies, and this time we dug into how they perceive and discuss other people’s bodies, too. While there’s some not-so-great stuff going on (1 in 4 women say they “loathe” their body, ugh), we learned — among other encouraging findings — that it seems to be time to debunk the myth of female cattiness once and for all. Hallelujah.

Read on for more about what we learned from the 1,000 Refinery29 readers we polled, let us know how you’re feeling, and get ready to Take Back The Beach.

What other people tell us about our bodies makes a huge impact — but what we say and think about our bodies is a big deal, too. While no one’s asking you to feel all warm and fuzzy all the time, let’s set a goal to take a bit of the kindness we have for other people and give it to ourselves. Because it’s your body. It’s your summer. Enjoy them both.