This outfit is breaking so many "don't do that!" rules. Don't wear horizontal stripes! Don't wear over-sized clothing! Don't wear short dresses! Don't wear tight dresses! Don't show any evidence of a body that hasn't been given the stamp of approval by the media and the masses. Don't have curves in the wrong places. Don't let anyone know you have a body that has indulged and lounged, worked hard, slept very little, slept a lot, fought battles with strength and fragility, and lived only by it's own rules.
If you did any of those things you might be showing yourself as too lazy to care how the mechanics of your body affect others. You might be revealing yourself as too undisciplined to try to garner the amorous attention of every person you come into contact with. How are you ever going to be a pretty object for someone else's benefit if you don't start acting like one?
But even when it can leave me feeling exposed and vulnerable, to brashly defy the expectations that have creeped in and overtaken the minds of so many people, that is just not what I want to spread around. I don't want the standards that I pass on to my kids to be perfection or nothing. I don't won't to hide the honesty of myself.
Maybe. Just maybe I will be able to raise kids who see life as something to experience and not an experience to be worthy for. I also hope that I can prevent the hard edge of criticism from forming in their brains and retain the kindness that doesn't require people to check off a list of desirable attributes before they are granted respect, acknowledgement, or even eye contact.
Appearances, theirs or others, are not something that concerned them while they were running around picking pumpkins, getting dirty, acting goofy. They only followed a natural proclivity for joy. Wouldn't it be amazing to always see life that way? Joy has no standards. So, if it fills you with joy to run around a pumpkin patch in a short, tight dress with horizontal stripes, please, don't be afraid to be that bright spot of defiance - that agent of joy.
Dress: JCPenney's (similar, similar in straight sizes, similar, similar, similar in plus) | Shirt: Borrowed from my husband but originally from JCPenney (similar) | Socks: Sockdreams | Boots: Modcloth (similar)
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