Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve

by Drew Afualo

I’ve always been the “mom” of my friend group. If you’re sick, I am the annoying friend texting you ten times asking if you need delivery, if you’ve made a doctor’s appointment, if you’ve turned off the work email and gotten some rest yet. Basically, I take care of everybody in the way I know how to from

That your form is neither good nor bad, but a vessel that allows you to move and exist in the world. The only feeling you direct toward your body is gratefulness for what it does for you every day in keeping you alive.

You cannot make a man feel less than unless he first derives power from being

stronger than you (in whatever capacity that is). The male gaze convinces us that we should value ourselves only through the narrow (and often racist/fatphobic/ableist) lens of what’s attractive to men, when in reality, our bodies are individual works of art.