Tweet, Tweet

A few days ago I did a very dangerous thing.  I joined Twitter.

Now many of you will read that and think, you weren’t already on Twitter?  And the answer is no, I wasn’t.  I’m a bit of a curmudgeon when it comes to social media—I have no Snapchat, Instagram, or Tumblr, either, and it took me years to get onto Facebook.  I saw no real need for Twitter, and my novelist tendencies balked at a 140-character limit on every single post.  What could I say in that few words that would interest anyone? 

So what made me change my mind?  It was a post I found via Facebook, about some very negative criticism the singer P!nk was getting on how she looked in the outfit she wore to a cancer benefit.  Now P!nk’s response was epically blasé: she thanked them for her concern and informed them that however poorly her outfit may or may not have photographed that night, she felt beautiful and that she herself was not concerned about her weight.  But I, reading about this on my phone before I got out of bed that morning, got angry.  What right did those people have to talk about her body?  Why was the size of P!nk’s waist more important than the reason she was there?  It seemed to me that our priorities have gotten so skewed, and it outraged me.

Then something happened to me that doesn’t usually happen: I decided to do something about it.  I don’t consider myself a very ambitious or active person; I will be the first to admit that while I have strong beliefs, I don’t usually follow them up.  This time, however, the idea came to me that the best way to fight negativity was with positivity.  I wanted young women looking in the mirror to like what they saw, and I wanted to encourage and inspire them to stop worrying so much about the reflection and look outward to other people.

Thus, my new Twitter handle.  @LoveTheMeISee is focused on promoting positive body image in women (and men, too! Why exclude half the world?), without using criticism or shaming others.  Since I began it, I’ve shared my thoughts there, but also I’ve begun collecting sources of encouragement and stories of strength.  I don’t pretend to be an authority, but I do believe that I have something to offer, that my education and my beliefs might give me a little bit of a voice in this area.

Like I said before, I’m not ambitious.  I don’t expect it to rock the world.  I do think, however, that every little bit helps, and that maybe, in time, I can give some of my sisters some comfort in this crazy, critical society of ours.  If that’s the case, then it will be worth every single tweet.