SHAPES, COLORS, PRINTS

These three things have really been speaking to my creative/wild side and I wanted to write out this post to further develop what's been spoken to me and share it with my fellow sultry saints. So let me break it down for you, and me!

1. Shapes : The shapes of the feminine form to be exact! I have been on such a journey in accepting, appreciating, and loving my body in every state of being. My body does so much for me and it was divinely designed and I never want to see it as anything less than the masterpiece it truly is. That being said, I love that my body can be a masterpiece and a work in progress all at once! And a work in progress it most certainly is! Even the most beautiful women in our eyes still have insecurities about themselves. It's important not to belittle those insecurities just because we may feel like ours are so much more "extreme". I've been guilty of doing just that more times than I can count and it's not helpful to anyone! In learning to appreciate, love, and see the beauty of my own body it has also allowed me to better appreciate the female figure as a whole that much more! To appreciate all the wonders of its vastly different hills and valleys, all the amazing things it’s capable of, and all the delicious variety of the feminine figure! Our society teaches us certain beauty standard from the moment we are born. Growing up, we have little chance to see the beauty in all shapes, sizes, and colors because our cultures teach us a very specific and tunnel visioned view of beauty standards. I actually took the time to further develop this thought and actually look up the stats on feminine beauty standards throughout our recorded world cultures history. These things are so interesting to me! Here's what I found on beauty standards throughout the ages, form a few different places in the world!

Ancient Egypt : slender, narrow shoulders, high waist, symmetrical face

Ancient Greece : plump, full bodied, light skinned

Han Dynasty China : slim waist, pale skin, large eyes, small feet (still very much the beauty standard here!)

Italian Renaissance : boobs for daayyzzz, rounded stomach, full hips, fair skin

Victorian England : pleasantly plump, full figured, cinched / tiny ass waist (coresets ya'll!)

USA 1920's : small boobies, downplayed waist, short bob hair style, boyish / boxy figure

Hollywood Golden age USA 1930's-50's : curvaceous, hour glass figure, big boobs, small waist, wide hips

The 70's : thin, tall, very long and very slim legs, willowy frame

80s supermodel Era : athletic, tall, toned, huge hair (perms anyone?)

90's : extremely thin, fit, practically translucent skin

2000's : Flat tummy, thin but in a healthy way, large breasts and tight booty, thigh gap for dayyyzzz, bronzed skin

current: hourglass figure, slim thick, big boobies, wide hips, giant round booty, bronzed skin and tiny waist! (just listen to literally any current rap song out there 😂) Most of which can't be achieved naturally so plastic surgery has become a HUGE part of today's beauty culture.

Feel free to add any other beauty standard that you can think of! The list could go on forever!

All this tells me is, "Stop wasting your time trying like the Dickins to conform to an ideal standard that will pass before you ever catch up to the last one! Just love your body because it's truly amazing and does so damn much for you!" We spend so much time trying to become these ideal standards that by the time we've "achieved the look" the damn look has changed AGAIN! All that time could be spent on things so much more beneficial to our health, our lives, our communities, our societies, and the whole world for that matter!

If you lovelies read my “Sacred Sultry Space” post you’ll have seen a couple of these feminine figures. If you haven’t, here they are again! I am choosing to see past that tunnel vision "beauty" I was born into. Breaking the walls of those passing fads and now seeing true beauty, love and appreciation in all shapes, sizes, and colors! It’s been such a wonderful, difficult and freeing process! Seeing and appreciating the beauty of VARIETY is a journey I am reveling in and leaning into deeply!

In learning to accept all of myself, I have opened my eyes to the beauty of so many other forms as well! What a glorious process! Instead of being afraid of bodies (my own included) that don’t fit the current “ideal body” fad, I’m embracing it all and showing up in my own body with love and acceptance, therefore allowing me to show up for other forms with equal love and acceptance. This part of my journey will continuously be a part of my daily walk!

2. Colors : specifically, the color RED is speaking to me. If you read my “Perpetual State of Transformation” post you’ll have read a little bit about the color red in my eyes. If you haven’t, this will be a more in depth and further developed version of that with a little bit of my back story included. It’s strange how I’ve had such a love hate relationship with the color red actually. I mean, who has a love hate relationship with a color for goodness sakes? At first it was my favorite color because it was my birth moms favorite color and when I was a kid I wanted to be just like her. Then when I learned and further understood the kind of person she was, her actions, and her deception I began to hate the color red. I wanted nothing to do with her or anything that reminded me of her. Red was a constant reminder of who she was and my association with her. I felt ashamed of her and of myself for having come from her. For a long time, the color red was a symbol of pain, tragedy, and immense shame. Funny how something as simple as a color can bring all that up inside a person.

I have since worked through those feelings and reconciled them within myself. (Thank God!)🙏🏽 For a while the color red has been nothing more that just that -- a color. Though it remained one I wasn't particularly fond of though not for the same reasons as before.

Recently the color red has been speaking to me and has been shown to me in a whole new light! The color red to me now speaks of: rawness, love, passion, delicious danger, life, ferocity, wildness, boldness, seduction, and so much more! The color red has inspired me to dive deeper into my capacity for all of these things and has given me the courage to step out and explore all of these things within myself. I've now been able to truly claim the color for my own and in my own way. I used to not be “brave” enough to wear red lipstick because I thought only bold, sexy women did that and I didn’t feel I was either of those things. Today I step into my own version of bold and sexy and wear all the red lipstick I please damnit!

I used to never wear the color red because someone once told me It didn't look good on me so I believed it didn’t go with my skin tone and that I shouldn’t wear it! Now I just say “F*** it! It makes me feel spicy!” And also “Damn I look good!” But it's not at all about how I actually look! It's about how I feel wearing it! It’s all about perspective ladies! Can I get an amen??

3. Prints: by this I mean animal prints, specifically: leopard, tiger, and snake print! I have always loved these prints (and animals). They’ve always said, “WILD, SENSUAL, BOLD, FIERCE, FUN” to me. All things I admire in other women and all things I want to feel myself! What woman wouldn’t? All the things I wanted to be and the feelings I wanted to feel yet I didn’t give myself permission to because I didn’t believe I was worthy. I didn’t feel worthy to feel those things because that was for other women who were better than me. It’s a lie that I believed for a long time that kept me in a tiny, boring box. It’s a lie that I am choosing to no longer believe. A lie that I am freeing myself from while simultaneously giving myself Devine Permission to explore wholeheartedly! Incorporating these prints into my daily life has so changed the way I see myself! From wearing them to accessorizing with them, to having them tattooed on my body! I feel immense freedom, delicious playfulness, and the kind of wildness I knew I had in me but didn’t quite know how to tap into and explore. These prints inspire me to explore all of those emotions welling up inside of me just waiting for me to embrace them boldly! I can’t explain the feeling of delicious freedom it is to lean into my wild! 🐅🐆💋💃🏽👑

What's speaking to you lately? What is calling your wild forth? What is lighting you up?

stay spicy, stay wild, and be kind

best wishes my sultry saints 💋