My sister once got me a framed quote for my wall, it says; "Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen." It's the very first thing I see when I walk though my front door.
Amid conversations fueled by laughter and mugs of mulled wine during a Christmas wild camp in the woods, the idea of the Wild Women Naked Calendar was born. I can't even remember what brought about the conversation, but I knew instantly this was something I really wanted to make happen!
I'd noticed talk around negative body image a number of times in general conversation on various adventures. Women have become experts at finding faults with their bodies. It's no wonder, we all get bombarded with images that tell us our bodies are imperfect - too fat, too thin, too smelly, too wrinkled, too dimply, too soft. These messages seep under our skin, into our brains and it seriously messes with our self-esteem. And I mean seriously! - We would be hard pushed to meet a person, in a society where images of super models are photo shopped to perfection, who doesn't have body insecurities! On a Spanish adventure retreat, jam packed full of adrenaline fueled rock climbing, abseiling and caving activities, wearing a bikini was described as being the one of the biggest stretches out of peoples comfort zones and on a wild water adventure, there were similar conversations around squeezing in and out of wet suits being scarier than white water rafting!
As with everything there is a choice, we can either spend our lives thinking my butt’s too big, too small, too flat, too dimply, too soft, or we can learn to appreciate our body just as it is. All things considered, this is definitely a lot easier said than done.
“Our culture is obsessed with perfection, especially when it comes to the way women look. The parameters of acceptability as far as physical appearance go are so limiting that only a handful of women actually fall into this category. And the rest of us are left to either squeeze ourselves into molds that don't fit, hating ourselves all the while, or we just give up entirely.”
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These thoughts had been going round my head for a while prior to the mention of the calendar, the second the calander was mentioned I knew it had to happen. We might not have whatever we think is the perfect body, but there is definitely a lot we can do to learn to love the body we are in. First step, lets face our fear.
I often tell myself self belief is the antidote to fear. There used to be a quote on the wall of a high school I once worked in; “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're probably right.”― Henry Ford I remember the first time I read it, it really struck a cord with me and has stayed with me ever since! An impromptu skinny dip on a cold December evening completely sealed the deal.
The Wild Women Adventures naked calendar is our stand against socially constructed ideas of beauty, its about us facing our fears and pushing our comfort zones. It's about having fun, feeling liberated and supporting each other as well as two local charities along the way. It's about us learning to love ourselves, redefining beauty, being wild and feeling free.
Proceeds from the calander sales will go to FACT Fighting All Cancers Together and Northumberland Mountain Rescue.
“Body acceptance means, as much as possible, approving of and loving your body, despite its “imperfections”, real or perceived. That means accepting that your body is fatter than some others, or thinner than some others, that your eyes are a little crooked, that you have a disability that makes walking difficult, that you have health concerns that you have to deal with — but that all of that doesn’t mean that you need to be ashamed of your body or try to change it. Body acceptance allows for the fact that there is a diversity of bodies in the world, and that there’s no wrong way to have one.”
― Golda Poretsky
An absolutely massive thank you goes to Rachel McClumpa from rjm-photography.co.uk and a tribe of strong, brave willing wild women for making this happen!
By Maggie Martin
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