Raw and uncensored

Consider this:

• 80% of American women are dissatisfied with their appearance.
• Two thirds of women are so unhappy with their bodies they would undergo plastic surgery to achieve the perfect body. 
• 51% of 9 and 10 year old girls feel better about themselves if they are on a diet.
• Approximately 7 million girls and women in the U.S. struggle with eating disorders. 
• Without treatment, up to 20% of people with serious eating disorders die.

Today bloggers around the world are taking off their makeup and revealing their real faces in an effort to show the world what true beauty looks like -- that beauty is not something applied on the outside to cover us up, but rather something that shines from within.  Hats off to Jodie for launching the idea.

I believe that beauty is love, integrity, honesty, compassion and generosity of spirit. I would rather spend one day with someone who is genuine than a lifetime with someone who wears a mask.

The earth didn’t quake last month when we showed some boob (well, maybe a little – sorry Taiwan, way to take one for the masses). I imagine it can handle our bare faces for one day.

Oh, and for those of you who clicked on yesterday’s post (Bloggers in the buff) and were disappointed to see it was about blogging without makeup, who took me to task because I talk up honesty and the genuine article and then posted a teaser title like that (hint, the readers I’m referring to here are not the ones with vaginas, they were very enthusiastic about the post), I’ll say this:

Fine then, you want the genuine article? Later this year I will start my own meme – Bloggers in the buff, the full monty. I expect the enthusiastic participation of everyone who took me to task. Whingers.

Anyway. Please show your support of the women participating today. Visit their links (go to Jodie's site for the McLinky), tell them how beautiful they are, stumble their posts. Because we are beautiful, all of us (even you whinging men).

This is me, first thing in the morning, mother, writer, workslave, soon-to-be-ex, incorrigible dreamer, afflicted with wanderlust, raw and uncensored.