Trends come and go. Some trends are annoying, while others are bearable. A few get old quickly and really grind my gears.
One trend that has caught on fire is the tremendous desire to inject or go under the knife to obtain an overly dramatic derrière. What I want to focus on is the obsession of BIG BUTTS and BIG HIPS.
Though this is a staple for women, not every woman has exaggerated body parts, and anyone who does is not always fond of them. I am one of those women. There is a reason why, because there is always a reason. When I turned 12, I had the tremendous pleasure in becoming a young woman by acquiring a certain flow, that’s right, my period. From then on my body expanded, specifically around the hips and derrière. Instead of allowing myself to embrace my new body, I remember hating it as soon as I had the opportunity. For some reason, this gave people, mainly men, the assumption that I would enjoy being judged and sexually harassed.
There were a few incidents I can recall: one of the most traumatizing for me was when I was with my mother, walking and pushing a shopping cart to the laundromat. As we finally got closer to our destination, a man standing by himself decided that it would be appropriate to shout obscenities at a 12-year-old girl.
First, he whistled, then went on to call me endearing names such as “delicious little mama,” and what really put the icing on the cake, and I will translate it from Spanish to English, and I quote, “Hey lady your daughter looks really good to F***!” I was embarrassed and appalled, and my mother was livid and cussed him out, but it made no difference because the damage had been done. I felt guilty and I blamed myself for putting my mother in that mortifying situation.
That’s when I started to fully clothe myself, even wearing sweaters and baggy jeans in the summer to make sure the curves of my body could not be noticed. It screwed up my self-esteem before I knew what that was. At the same time, I desired to look like the women on television who were tall, blonde, blue eyed, and skinny with legs for days. This is who I aspired to be, but somehow I could not achieve it, no matter how much I tried. I quickly had a rude awakening that I would never achieve this body type.
Around my mid-twenties, I began to show some skin—usually my arms—and wore tight pants in order to fit in since I did get some pressure from my friends to show off my “assets.” As I observed how my friends, both male and female, interacted with the opposite sex, I didn’t quite understand the actions that occurred between them. I was the one watching from the sidelines, feeling very uncomfortable, and wondering what’s with all the commotion when the only thing that came out of it was a one-night unfulfilling hookup. The guys got all the praise and the girls were passed down the line. That was a turning point for me. I told myself I do not want to be like that. I might not have the best self-esteem but I will not give them the satisfaction to tear me down more than I already do myself…
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