Large, loud, strong AND women!

“To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in oneself.” – Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex

We all know it, by now it’s a cliché, but still women and girls’ confidence in our bodies is under attack everyday. The media bombards us with images of super-skinny ladies in spike high heels and impractical (at best) clothing. Standards of beauty prize the impossible and encourage girls and women to weaken our bodies and take up less space.

So many things about such “ideals” of femininity scream, “Weak! Unstable! Incapable!” thus by contrast: large + strong + loud = unfeminine. This equation is not only wrong; it’s dangerous. The systematic undermining of girls’ and women’s confidence in our bodies is disastrous for our self-esteem and a real issue of safety. If we undervalue our bodies because they don’t live up to someone else’s standards, we seriously jeopardize our ability to stand up for and protect ourselves. If we are uncomfortable in our skin, how can walk confidently? If we feel apologetic for the amount of space we take up, how can we claim what’s ours? If we don’t feel that our bodies are worth protecting because they are too big, too unfeminine, or too weak it’s much more difficult to believe that we ought to keep our bodies safe.

For the girls and women who go through the Girls’ LEAP training, they leave with invaluable skills and a community of supportive peers and role models. Perhaps even more important though than the skills themselves is the understanding of what our bodies are capable of - we can be loud, large, strong, and women. We learn where women’s bodies are strongest. As you may have guessed, it’s the hips and thighs! All those parts we’re “supposed” to bemoan the size of and go on diets to make smaller are actually our best bet in a dangerous situation. Through its female teaching staff and focus on the strengths of women’s bodies Girls’ LEAP helps the girls and women it works with redefine their beliefs about their bodies’ capacities and their understanding of what it means to be a woman.