Latest / The Priestess Temple Podcast / Ep 9: Nudist Colonies & The Truth About Beauty Standards
Transcript
- Embodied By Jenna: Hi, Baddie. Welcome to another episode of Bad Bitch Embodiment Podcast. My name is Jenna. I'm your host and guide, helping you feel empowered and supported to break up with diet culture, fall in love with your body, and call in your dream relationship. Let's get started. Alright, y'all, buckle up for this one because today we are going to talk about what nudist colonies have taught me about body image and conventional beauty standards. Yep, that's right. I said nudist colonies because if you know anything about me, you know that I have lived quite an unconventional life, and I have been part of several different countercultures in my 34 years of existence. Within the past year, I have been to two gatherings that openly allowed nudity in public. And through these experiences, what I have learned about the human body and about conventional beauty standards is quite shocking. So I really want to have this conversation with you today just to help you kind of open your eyes. And see what's actually going on within our society because I think we are quite jaded when it comes to the ideal of what your body should actually look like. Think about the images that we are advertised every single day. You have this beautiful, slim body that has all the right curves and all the right places. Not a wrinkle or pimple or stretch mark in sight. And God forbid if there's any body hair or yellow teeth, right? Except if you are shown an image that has any of those features I just mentioned, it's probably an ad to help you get rid of said features. Think about that for a second. Wrinkles, stretch marks, body hair, pimples, yellow teeth, these are all quite normal parts of the human experience. However, as we are sitting behind our phones or watching advertisements on the television, we are consuming tons of images that show that that is not quite the case. And it can really have a negative impact on our own self-image when we're thinking about a standard that we are trying to achieve for our own aesthetics. And I want you to just marinate in this because what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna tell you a story, of course, from my own personal life about being part of these nudist colonies. And then we're gonna come back to this conversation about. body image and beauty standards. And I'm gonna help you work through it by giving you some practical tips that you can implement in your life today. Alright. So it all goes back to when I met my ex-boyfriend that inspired me to create this podcast. So I was at a music festival called Summer Dance. It's at the Nelson Ledges Quarry Park in Ohio and it's one of my favorite places. And late night one night I met him around a campfire and we had a good conversation. I ended up going to bed and the next morning we were packing up our camp to come home. And as I was packing up my campsite, he drives by and he calls me over to his van and he said, Hey, I really enjoyed spending time with you, and I want to give you something. These are very special ceremonial coals from a fire that I built at a place called Brushwood Folklore Center. And this place has a pagan fire festival. Every single year, where they pretty much honor the earth and the elements and come together in ceremony He was like, I Think that you would love this place. And I want to give you these calls so you can keep them at your house and they can remind you of me. And I was like, okay, cool. Bet. So we talked for a little bit just through text, but we fell off. And then maybe nine months later, I get a text message from him. And he's like, Hey girl, how you doing? We start talking. And he was like, I really want to see you before summer dance this year. And I'm like, I don't think so because I live in New York, you live in Ohio, and I just don't think our paths are gonna cross. And he was like, Well, I want you to come to Brushwood Folklore Center for the Pagan Fire Festival. If I buy your ticket and if I take care of you for that week, will you join? And at the time, I I was single. I didn't really have much going on. And I was like, shit, you know what? If he's gonna pay for me and he's gonna take care of me and give me this really interesting experience that I've never had before, then I'm down. Let's fucking go. And so I went up to the grounds to meet him before the festival because I wanted to make sure I was safe and I wanted to make sure that I knew where I was and I could meet some other people there. And when I got there, I Fell in love. I am telling you guys, this place was insane. So they were using a crane to build a fire in the shape of a pentagram. And this thing was fucking huge. Like I am telling you, they needed like explosives to light it. That's how big it was. And they also had a roundhouse. That pretty much the community gathered in every single night to play drums and have a fire and dance and drink and be merry. They also had a bathhouse where the whole community would shower and go in the pool and go in the hot tub naked together. And people just kind of did whatever they wanted on this land. You could just run around and be free and be naked and be your hippie little self. And I went to the fire festival and I had an amazing time. And it was really interesting to see how open everybody was with their bodies. Some people were naked, some people weren't, but nobody cared. It was just normal. And there was an air of liberation around the whole thing. Like I In the bathhouse and the shower with everyone, men and women, and it wasn't weird. Okay, like everyone was just keeping things really fucking chill. It was just like another day in the park. No one was like staring at you, no one was trying to touch you, no one was encroaching on your boundaries. It was just normal. And the essence of the whole festival was play. I Literally felt like a young kid again, just dancing to the drums, moving around the fire, being in the hot tub late night, giggling and eating snacks, and just having like the funnest summer ever. One thing I do want to mention about this experience is that I did see a lot of different naked bodies. And what I saw was quite shocking considering the type of content that I consume on Instagram. Most people did not look anything like the traditional images I saw online. There were people of all different shapes and sizes, really thin, really fat, really hairy, really bald. Everyone had their own unique body. And they were all being seen and accepted and celebrated just as they were. I had never been around a community of people who were just so. Comfortable with themselves. And that for me was such a sigh of relief. After being a woman who has recovered from disordered eating, anorexia. extreme dieting. It was so cool to be around people who were just fat and who were just okay with it. Having a taste of this nudist colony experience at that festival actually made me crave that kind of experience again. And so I went to this women's gathering called Spirit Weavers in Southern Oregon that I've talked about on another episode. And I was just there a month ago. And this gathering was a little bit different because it was only women. So I was around 800 women that were all gathered in one place for a common purpose. It was a Skillshare festival where we were there to learn from master teachers. And one of the perks of the festival is that they had this beautiful river. And at the river, it was very normal for everyone to bathe naked. Actually, I only saw like one or two people with a swimsuit on the whole time. The vast majority of women there were naked. And this was a festival of all different ages of women. So there were babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, adults, grandmas, you name it. There was a whole spectrum of women there. And through viewing these women naked, feeling so comfortable in their bodies, So free to let their breasts out in the sunshine and hop in the cool water on a hot Oregon day. And to just be fully at peace in their bodies. It was so inspiring for me. It literally changed my life. At the end of the gathering, we took a group photo where everyone in the photo was completely naked. Okay, so I'm gonna tell you, I saw probably 500 naked women at one time. And what I realized is that no two women looked the same. There were women who had saggy breasts from having babies who were currently breastfeeding. There were women who had amputations and were using prosthetics to get around the festival. There were women who had freckles and stretch marks and birthmarks and acne. All types of women came. And gathered. And the one thing I want to say about each and every single woman at that event is that they were fucking beautiful. There was not one woman that I saw there that wasn't a total fucking goddess. And it really got me thinking because we are advertised an. Ideal image of what a woman is supposed to look like to be beautiful. And you see this in our society today where people are getting all kinds of plastic surgery, you know, lip filler, cheek filler, Botox. All of these things make everybody look kind of the same. And it's a little bit weird and it's a little bit dystopian when you think about it because we are so afraid to live within our own bodies and be at peace and express our own individual beauty. And this is for a very intentional reason. In our society, so much shame is thrown upon the female body because. The female body is the most powerful thing on planet Earth. I want you to hear me when I say this, The womb and the power that is held within the female body to produce life is the most powerful thing on earth. And shame is the lowest vibrational frequency known to man. And so when you throw shame. On top of something that is so powerful, such as the female body, it diludes the power and the potency of its ability to create. And so conventional beauty standards are one of those things that are used to actually control and manipulate women. Because there is always a standard that is outside of ourselves that we are constantly taught that we need to achieve, that we constantly are taught we need to buy the next product, we need to have the next procedure, we need to have this cream to tighten our wrinkles, or use this product to get rid of your acne, right? We're always looking to achieve some pinnacle level of beauty that's outside of us. But what I am telling you, babe, is that. Your unique beauty, your unique essence is exactly the thing that this world needs. You don't need to change anything about yourself. From seeing all of these naked bodies, what I will tell you is that one to two percent of the bodies I have seen actually fit the conventional beauty standard. Want you to let that sink in. I'm telling you, one to two percent of the bodies I have seen fit the typical benchmark of the type of body that is being advertised to you. And I'm gonna take it a step further here because this is really shocking. Okay. Like I told you at that Spirit Weavers women's gathering, there were women of all different ages. And the ones who were closest to fitting the conventional beauty standard were the ones who were very young. Like I am talking about 18 years old or maybe under. And when we really look at it, truly, these conventional beauty standards are based off of pedophilia. No body hair, no wrinkles, extreme. Thinness, these are all characteristics of a prepubescent girl. And they are characteristics that are being marketed to older women as seemingly desirable. What I am telling you from all of the naked bodies that I have seen is that none of the older women have these qualities. And I think this is also intentional to get older women who have so much life experience, who have so much power and wisdom within their womb and within their body to share with others. It gets them to have a lot of hate and disdain for their own bodies. A lot of trouble occurs in that menopausal time because. Women gain weight to protect themselves throughout these hormonal shifts. And I see so many beautiful women really suffering and struggling with this menopause time weight gain. However, it is natural and it is normal. It's just that we're advertised that it is not, and we are led to believe that it is not. And I am telling you that that is fucking bullshit. I really think that there is a lot of shame being thrown onto the female body to prevent women from embracing their true power that lives within their womb. And I also think that we aren't shown images of typical bodies for a reason because again. They want us to buy the next product. They want us to constantly be using our energy to reach the next unattainable standard, just leaving us running on a hamster wheel so that we can never truly feel at peace within our bodies. And I say, fuck that. That is the whole point and mission of my work is to help you come home to your body so you can feel at Ease in the physical vessel that God gave you. And so I just want you to ask yourself what beauty standards are you participating in and why do you participate in them? For example, if you shave your legs, no shade, right? But I just want to ask you why do you shave them? Do you shave them because you like to shave them? Do you shave them because you're supposed to shave them? Do you shave them because it's socially acceptable? the intention behind your actions is so, so, so important. Also, want you to think about who is setting these standards? Who is setting these arbitrary standards that we are being led to believe that we need to achieve? This podcast is called Bad Bitch Embodiment for a reason because this is about finding the bad bitch energy within you and bringing it out to the surface so that the world can see you and celebrate you for your gifts. And so a bad bitch doesn't follow conventional beauty standards. She creates her own standard. And so It's quite normal for you to want your body to be different. It's quite normal for you to want to change the way you look or to lose weight In fact, it would be weird if you didn't because of the way that we are advertised to in our society. However, a challenge that I am going to leave you with at the end of this episode is I want you to think about. Your body right here, right now, today, even if you want it to change or be different, what is one thing that you can do to embrace the body you have today? Maybe this is through accentuating a certain feature that makes you unique. Maybe this is by putting on some clothes that fit your body really well and walking down the street and just feeling fucking amazing. Maybe this is just by putting on some lip gloss or some perfume or a piece of your favorite jewelry just to adorn your body and get back into your senses and say, Hey, you know, even though I want my body to be different. I can love and accept what I have right here, right now, and treat it with respect. And when you move through the world in this way, what you do is you absolve some of the shame and the cultural conditioning that tells you your body needs to be different. And you start to embrace the natural beauty you have from within by bringing it to the surface today. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Bad Bitch Embodiment Podcast. If you enjoyed our conversation, please share with members of your community and be sure to like, comment, and subscribe so we can keep having these amazing conversations every week. I will see you next Thursday. And until then, you are a bad bitch. Don't you ever forget it.