Something That Shouldn't Be Cool Anymore: A Womanifesto

It's always been cool to wreck stuff.

In Elementary School:

It was cool to wreck your erasers by carving them into some kind of totem pole or voodoo doll.

It was cool to wreck your shoes by drawing all over them.

It was cool to wreck your lunch by mashing it into something unrecognizable and inedible.

In Junior High School:

It was cool to wreck your clothes because maybe Mom might go buy you some new ones.

It was cool to wreck a relationship by passing notes and spreading rumors.

It was cool to wreck a textbook with doodles, drawings, and the occasional drop down a staircase.

In High School:

It was cool to wreck a teacher's lesson plan by misbehaving or simply distracting them.

It was cool to wreck a bare barn or shed with spray paint.

It was cool to wreck a vehicle by driving through fields, over jumps, and into puddles of mud.

Not to mention it was cool to watch someone wrecking these things, even if you weren't quite brave enough to wreck stuff yourself.

And the attraction of wrecking things doesn't stop once you've become an adult.  In fact, it appears as if it only becomes more cool.  Except, as an adult the things you wreck are usually much bigger and way more expensive.

Wanna see wrecked exotic and luxury cars?  Well there's a site for that right here.
Wanna see how to wreck a brand new iPad?  Well you can watch that right here.
Wanna see someone wreck a toilet with a bomb?  Well you can view that right here.

I guess in terms of destruction, the more valuable the victim, the better the wreck.  Right?  So obviously the unending work at wrecking the most important thing on earth makes complete sense.

But what do I mean by "the most important thing on earth"?  Honestly, I don't agree with that definition  for what I'm describing, but that's probably because I'm guilty of wrecking it too.  What is it?

The female body.  

What makes me think to call it "the most important thing on earth"?  The fact that God created it last.  Sure, it's the gateway to human life which is also important, yet as I come to know God more, I can't help but feel like he is particular enough to have been trying to make a point with what creation he saved for last.

Now Kristen, don't be crazy, the female body isn't being wrecked.  This is a silly analogy to make!

Sure it is.  Let me prove how.  I'll start with the very ugly.

1. The Very Ugly

I really don't care to delve into these means of wreckage, as they are quite self-explanatory.  So let it just be said that these are the most depraved, immoral, and degrading forms of destroying the female body.

• Sex Trafficking.  
• Prostitution.  
• Pornography.  

Each of these are a reality.  I don't think I have to say much in order to convince you of the utter destruction these wreak on the female body.  Let it be enough to say that they just do.

2. The Very Beautiful

This one bugs me.  I struggle to not get caught up in thick of thin things, yet the portrayal of what is beautiful to the world is really just another scheme to destroy the female body.  And you can't avoid it either.

Listen to the radio or just any of your favorite songs closely.  Katy Perry can tell you how to be as unforgettable as a California Girl; apparently the recipe is to wear Daisy Duke shorts and a bikini on top, not to mention you've got to be "toned, tanned, fit and ready."

Watch some TV.  The commercials alone should leave you feeling like you need to try a new diet, buy some face-lifting, age-eliminating moisturizer, and have the same youthful vitality and sex appeal as the "normal" women accosting you with smiles and high voices.

Buy groceries for heaven's sake.  The racks and racks of magazines will shout at you.  LOSE TEN POUNDS!  25 BEAUTY SECRETS!  FEEL TEN YEARS YOUNGER!  LOOK YOUNGER!

With so many sources telling women how to look and feel, you can't help but think how you look and feel right now is wrong.  Hmm, I need to lose ten pounds?  I need to look ten years younger?  And then it begins.  The never-ending, literally, NEVER-ENDING quest seeking feminine perfection.  And the ironic thing is, in this quest for feminine perfection, the more you look and the harder you try and the longer you insist, the closer you get to, not perfection or happiness, but to woe and misery.

For some reason, society's ideal for a woman is eternally out of reach; and this is the best and most effective way to wreck the female body.  By telling her it needs to be something that it simply cannot.  And in an effort to become what you simply cannot, a female eventually wrecks herself.  

For example, in order to lose ten pounds or look like the fantastic photoshopped women in a magazine we've created eating disorders.  Anorexia.  Bulimia.  But those aren't the only eating disorders.  In order to cope with the cognitive dissonance of it all we've also created compulsive over-eating, binge eating, or such strange dietary patterns as drinking nothing but diet soda all day.  And we do it in the name of beauty.  And it slowly wrecks our beautiful female body.

Perhaps I'm just admitting my own insanity.  And I'm cool with that I guess.  But I can't help but feel like C.S. Lewis had it all right in his book "The Screwtape Letters" when it came to female image.  In this book, the devil is writing letters of advice to a junior devil on how to best destroy the person they've been assigned to tempt here on earth.  And this is how to destroy a woman:

"At present we are on the opposite track, the age of jazz has succeeded the age of the waltz, and we now teach men to like women whose bodies are scarcely distinguishable from those of boys.  Since this is a kind of beauty even more transitory than most, we thus aggravate the female's chronic horror of growing old (with many excellent results) and render her less willing and less able to bear children.  ... the figures in the popular art are falsely drawn; the real women in bathing suits or tights are actually pinched in and propped up to make them appear firmer and more slender and more boyish than nature allows a full-grown woman to be.  As a result we are more and more directing the desires of men to something which does not exist - making the role of the eye in sexuality more and more important and at the same time making it's demands more and more impossible.  What follows you can easily forecast!"

I'm sick of it.  I've had enough.  I don't want to hang out with my friends or sisters and have the topic of image creep into a conversation.  Who cares.  Weight and size are really just numbers.  I am Kristen Gibb, even if I don't have my make-up on.  I can go a day without exercising and still be the same person I was yesterday.  Who cares if I don't look like what I see on TV or read in the magazines.  I'm sick of it.

Wrecking the female body shouldn't be cool anymore.  

And I'm serious.  I'm done.  I'm going on strike.  I guess what made me realize how badly I needed this in my own life is the fact that I'm getting married.  And if one day I should have to raise a daughter, what kind of role model would I be if I was constantly caught up in the process of wrecking myself?  

Which brings me to the following:

A Womanifesto

I solemnly swear to protect what is sacred through thought, word, and deed.  I have been blessed with a miraculous female body.  I was fortunate enough to be given that which was created last, whether God saved the best for last or not, I still believe that what I have is a most sacred gift.  

I will think only positive thoughts concerning my body.

I will say only positive words regarding my body.

I will do only things that build, strengthen, and reinforce just how precious my body is.

It is no longer cool to wreck the female body.  And I will no longer support that cause.