Breathe
By Areli Paz
Envy: ephemeral feeling that demonstrates the emotional smallness of the person who experiences it.
Bikini: two pieces that can be overwhelming. Objects of desire or mockery.
Perfect body: mine isn't. Or is it?
Face it, you don't have the perfect body. It repeats to us every Instagram photo or video that passes through the millions of messages that invade the network.
Surely I'm not the only one who, when passing by, ever asks that question.
Surely we have all gone through the stupid idea of comparing ourselves.
It's not me, that's a human condition that for better or worse is used to value us or believe that we do it from a wrong point.
But what is the perfect body? Stereotypes have delineated that it is a body that is functionally harmonious between its amount of fat, symmetry and the possibility of wearing a tiny bikini.
Yes, that's my benchmark of a perfect body.
A bad reference understood from a place where we women are educated to show how beautiful we are or not.
That body of a woman that supports two tiny pieces without suffering.
That woman's body that manages to walk while bearing the looks, the criticism, the mockery, the desires or questioning when you are not 18 and over 40.
That body happy to support its own skin, whatever its texture, color and hardness.
And then I came to the viral video of model Marissa Dubois, better known as Riss, yes that spectacular blonde woman that some call "not fit" and others even dare to say "the good fat model".
Riss has broken with stereotypes of slender women.
She is not long-legged and slender, and she doesn't need it. She wore that green bikini with a confidence that seduced everyone.
It's not the bikini, it's what she achieved with it. Her confidence, her ability to overcome the what-ifs of a fierce world where we all believe we are capable of criticizing the one next to us.
They called it no Fit, because it broke the mold of what we know.
She was called non-fit because her thighs are larger than average.
They called her not Fit, just because they wanted to flatter her, when clearly she is more Fit than many who with extreme diets and brutal routines do not manage to feel so confident in their skin.
Most of the comments applauded her for her courage. Others, mostly from women, questioned her "lack" of exercise to be as slim as possible.
In the line of every curve of our body we have experience, life and care for who we are.
Women are very self-destructive when it comes to looking in the mirror.
Worse, when we expose ourselves to men and women who envy what they are not, therein lies the real problem with messing with other people's bodies.
When you criticize someone for their physique, height, skin color or texture all you are doing is showing how small you feel in front of the world.
Having a perfect body is in the mind and depends on what you use it for and how you feel about what you achieve every day with your skin and imperfections.
So today my body is perfect, for what I do, what I am and what I say. I don't know if I can stand a green bikini like Riss, but her confidence on the world's catwalk tucks all of us who hesitate in front of the mirror, in the face of criticism or cheap questioning.
Applause Riss, for her and all those who decide to love themselves as they are.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of Opinion 51.
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