I love Dawn Porter!! (not in a pervy sexual way tho!)

I watched "Dawn Get Naked" tonight ... completely by accident as it was on just after something else I was watching and I couldn't be bothered to change the channel as I was working on the website and the TV was just background! Thing is, it was the best decision I have ever not actually made!! Needless to say I didn't get far on the website because this TV prog had me HOOKED!!




I have seen Dawn Porter on TV before, and I have always thought she is totally awesome!!! She looks a bit like Lilly Allen (who I also totally love in a non pervy sexual way!) Dawn Porter is totally funny and 100% female real WOMAN. She is very easy to identify with because she is so real. I watched this TV program and god it was like my self confidence went through the roof!! I WISH I had known about this at the time of filming because I would have SO SO been there, supported her and got naked on her bus!!!

My favourite thing she said was "Life is so much better when you don't give yourself a hard time." I am definitely going to adopt that philosophy!! I am just GUTTED that I hadn't actually HEARD about this before considering how online my life is!!! I would have SO been there to support her and support this cause!

OMG I actually feel so incredible right now. My body image has been something I have struggled with for so long ... but ... and this is the thing I have learned this evening!!!! .... I am beautiful! I have a FEMALE FIGURE with lumpy bumpy bits in all their glory ... and you know what? THAT'S OKAY!!!

Dawn did a photo shoot and had a photo of herself taken with no makeup on ... she was then sent off for hair & makeup and looked lovely as she was normally ... but THEN she was photoshopped and made PERFECT... and I literally mean perfect. They even took one of her slightly squinty eyes and replaced it with a mirror image of the other! She was shaved down, her nose was altered and her whole face was given a glow.

The thing was ... when you actually compared this perfect photo to what Dawn actually REALLY looked like ... although you could see it was her, it really wasn't her ... if that makes sense! The two images were such extremes that it was crazy! All of a sudden things just made sense to me. The "perfection" that she was striving for just simply doesn't exist!

One thing that really struck me was that ... I would actually LOVE to have Dawn's figure! Part of me felt that if *I* looked like SHE did then I would be sooooo happy ... yet, there she was with SO many insecurities about her own body! It really did open my eyes about the truth behind REAL women!!

The biggest thing I have learned tonight is ... and I am quoting Dawn directly here .... "why on EARTH would we WANT to aspire to be something that doesn't exist!?"

Normal looking girls are made to feel crap about themselves because they are confronted with these false images of what is so called perfect! The thing is ... it just doesn't actually REALLY exist! I have no doubt that the models used in magazines are classically true beautiful women... but what Dawn's show tonight taught me is that the representation of these women that we see in the magazines is SO FALSE!!! It truly doesn't actually exist

Is it any wonder that girls grow up self conscious about their bodies? OMG I have learned so much about myself tonight. In just an hour of watching this TV prog, I am no longer AFRAID of what I actually am. I know now that not being perfect is not only OKAY, but that it's actually what 99.9% of the population are!!

So yeah, what started out as a bit of a blah day, actually ended up being quite inspirational! All hail Dawn Porter! LOL It did actually inspire me for my next photography challenge too ... I want to photograph REAL WOMEN. It wouldn't matter if they are a size 8 or a size 24 ... they would be REAL women and that's something that I feel very affilliated with from my own body and self confidence issues, and it's also something I very much want to support! I also think that the local papers would be very interested in it.

With the whole "eat healthy", "must exercise lots" and "must look good" that is pushed on people (and women in general) these days ... it was just so enlightening and empowering to watch an hours worth of TV about a REAL woman with REAL insecurities and to learn that although SHE had a body I would love to have myself ... that she had the exact same fears and worries about HER body ... as I do about mine!

I definitely feel my next personal photography challenge has to be along those lines - but I need to aim for 150 rather than 25 :-)

Feeling very empowered, very inspired ... and very WOMAN!!!