body image – Sophia Ravenna

One Year with Braces!

April 23, 2015Sophia Ravenna

Can you believe it’s been a little over a year since I got my braces? Wow! It’s actually been closer to 13 months since I started the process, but this is the first time I’ve really had a good chance to sit down and write about my feelings about this process.

I’m about halfway done with my time in tooth prison, as I like to call it. My doctor says another year at most. I’m hoping for less, obviously! Today I’m going to see the oral surgeon to discuss whether I need jaw surgery, but I’m really leaning towards not getting it. I mean, my jaws are already almost lined up, and I have another year of orthodontia to finish it up. I don’t really feel like it’s worth the pain, expense, and recovery time of a surgery to make things slightly better. But my orthodontist said I should talk to the surgeon anyway before I make a final decision.

Mostly, I’m just so super happy with the results so far. Yes, it’s been painful and uncomfortable. But look at my face! I look almost like a completely different person. I feel like I look, not really older, but more mature. My face looks more proportional. I still think my lips are a little weird, but they’re less weird than they used to be. And on a health note, I’m no longer having painful jaw popping!

I really can’t wait to see the end product. Also, I can’t wait to not have stuff glued to my teeth anymore, that will be awesome.

Belly dance, breasts, and beauty

June 17, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Yep, we're going to talk about boobs. — Yep, we’re going to talk about boobs.

Yesterday, my afternoon got hijacked by a little blog post titled My Husband Doesn’t Need to See Your Boobs. My first thought, before reading the article, was a cheeky “Well of course he doesn’t need to see them, even my own husband doesn’t need to see my boobs, but hey, boobs are awesome, of course people want to see them.” And note that I say people, not men, because men aren’t alone in liking to look at breasts. Many people find breasts, and the rest of a woman’s curves, objectively beautiful. There’s something very aesthetically pleasing about a body, whether it’s the soft curves of a woman or the chiseled planes of a male athlete.

And that’s what I’d like to talk about today, because much like the bikini-clad young women decried in the above article, belly dancers like me often get accused of dressing immodestly and attracting the attention of other women’s husbands and boyfriends. Well, of course we attract attention, we’re beautiful. And we dress to be beautiful. But we don’t dress to be sexually attractive — that’s a side effect, but the truth is, as a woman, no matter what you’re shaped like and how you’re dressed, someone is going to find you sexy. There were times and cultures where just a glimpse of a woman’s wrist was considered provocative, whereas in our current culture we only notice a wrist if it’s adorned with a nice tattoo or piece of jewelry.

When I dance, I dress to impress. I show my belly, the better to display my torso isolations. I might wear a skirt that hugs my bootie, the better to draw attention to my hips while I do a slow, languid maya. But then again, I might wear a huge, fluffy cotton skirt over billowing pantaloons, to make my spins all that much more showy and impressive. Either way, my intention is to create a beautiful image, an impression of something at once exotic and artistic. The dance would still be beautiful if I did it in sweat pants, but it would lose some of its magic.

There’s this weird idea that when women dress or put on makeup or do our hair to make ourselves more beautiful, we’re only doing it for men. Either we want to attract a man, or we want to make our man feel good about choosing us. As such, it’s obvious that a belly dancer must be showing off her body and wearing 50lbs of stage makeup to seduce a man. Why else would we go to the effort?

But quite simply, I think that women like to feel beautiful for our own sake. Is it wrong to think “My eyes are gorgeous, I should use this shade of eyeliner to really highlight them” or to enjoy smoothing a skirt down the curve of our hips? Is it wrong to be pleased with the size and shape of our breasts, whether we’re happy that they’re still young and perky or nostalgic about the way they sag from when we nursed babies that are now grown to adults? Is it wrong to sit down with a tutorial from Pinterest for a complicated braid, because your hair is finally long enough and you’ve always wanted to try that style? I don’t think it is.

Likewise, when I meet up with one of my female friends, whether it’s to grab lunch or to get ready for our show backstage, and I say “You look great” I’m not saying “Damn girl! You are going to seduce the hell out of someone tonight!” I’m saying “You know what? I find you to be objectively beautiful. You go girl, great job picking that skirt.”

We’ve long known that the human form was objectively beautiful. If it wasn’t, instead of the Venus de Milo we’d have a lovely sculpture of some flowers.

Talk about some objectively beautiful curves.

Proponents of the modesty culture like to say that once a man has seen an image, he can’t unsee it. Well, I believe that. I can’t unsee some horribly graphic pictures that friends have posted on Facebook, and I wish I could. But I don’t wish that I could unsee the Venus de Milo, or Mira Betz stepping on stage “dressed like the Queen of Sheba” as she likes to say, or me and my friends wearing bikinis and eating pizza. Why would anyone want to unsee those things? I think that our society needs to spend less time policing women’s modesty, and more time learning to differentiate between beauty and seduction.

Yeah, so, I got braces yesterday…

April 8, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Well, I put it off long enough, but in the last couple of weeks I finally put the plan into motion… I made the appointment to get my braces. And yesterday, I got the upper set put in (my lower teeth are not so unruly, so they get to wait a bit before being reined in). I am unfortunately not a candidate for Invisalign, but I did get clear braces, so as you can see from the above picture, they’re not nearly as obtrusive as the old-school silver ones we’re all so familiar with. And that’s a good thing, because I’ll be living with them for the next two years or so while I get these teeth straightened out.

Throughout the years, I’ve had a pretty complicated relationship with my smile. I used to hide my mouth a lot in photos, or avoid having my picture taken at all. Plenty of people have told me that I have a beautiful smile and I’m pretty the way I am, but in the back of my mind there was always the mocking words of all the kids who teased me, and even the adult who told my parents that my teenage self had a beautiful figure (complete with miming the curves I didn’t really have), but they should really do something about my teeth. Yes, this was said right in front of me. Yes, if I had a time machine, I’d go back and kick her in the shins.

And the truth is, while I’ve become more comfortable with my image and I know my friends mean it when they say I have a beautiful smile, I also know that if I want to work as a professional dancer, I’ll have an easier time getting gigs if I have straighter teeth. And as I’ve said before when discussing body love and self image, I don’t think there is anything wrong with loving your body but wanting to make the occasional improvement. Do I think I am beautiful? Oh yeah I do! But do I think I will be even MORE beautiful when I don’t have huge gaps between my teeth and a massive overbite? No question about it. So if you want to tell me that I am fine just the way I am/was, I will thank you for that, but this is still something that I want to do for myself.

And now: mini cosmetics review! When I posted the above photo on Facebook yesterday I got a ton of compliments on and questions about my lipstick. It’s Violet by Bite Beauty. I purchased it as part of this cute double-end mini, but you can also buy it as a full-sized product. I think the color looks great on me, it’s a nice example of 2014 Color of the Year Radiant Orchid, and I found the formula to be non-drying and easy to wear. It did get worn off when I ate dinner though. But over all, I think it’s a great product to check out if you like that bright lip look. I intend to wear it a lot.

Steps towards Body Love

March 24, 2014March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

I get weird, squishy creases when I bend this way and that’s OK.

Side note, it’s really weird to see my right hip without a tattoo.

When I shared last week’s post about pizza ‘n’ bikinis, I got a lot of interesting responses, but what made me sad were the ladies who said they didn’t love their bodies. It got me to thinking about my own progress in loving myself, so I thought I would share it.

Note: I realize that I speak from a place of privilege here. I’m white, medium sized, cisgender, and aside from my teeth, probably conventionally pretty. So I started from an easier point than others do. Still, maybe my advice will give you something to think about, and set you on a path to look for advice from people who have a similar experience to you.

For me, the first step to body love was finding individual parts of my body to love. For one thing, I love my hair. Even before I decided to dye it with henna making it a color that I adore, I loved its length, thickness, and gentle waves. I loved how I could put it in a bun and anchor a bunch of hairsticks, flowers, and other accessories in it.I loved wearing it down my back, or in braids, or in a bouncy ponytail.

Next, I learned to love my eyes. I never thought much about them, other than the fact that they tended to change color from time to time, but my husband loves them, and because he loves them, I love them. If your lover thinks that a part of your body is especially beautiful, ask him or her to tell you why, in detail. It will make you feel all ooey-gooey inside and help you see yourself as your lover sees you.

Somewhere along the way, I decided I also loved my legs. Sure, other people think they’re too pale, and they are attached to my excessively tight hips, but I love how long they are, and I love their shape, and I love how elegant I feel in an arabesque with my leg stretched out behind me.

Once I came to love a few body parts, it was easier to be pretty happy with my body in general, and learn to love most of the things that I didn’t like, or at least accept them.

Another way to love your body, if you can’t bring yourself to be happy with your looks (or if you’re already cool with your looks but unhappy about an illness or injury that keeps you down), is to love what your body DOES. The human body in and of itself is a pretty amazing thing, and each of us has probably achieved some cool thing with our body. I love my body because it’s pretty good at dancing and that makes me incredibly happy. Maybe you love your body because it grew a baby, or because you can bench press an insane amount of weight, or you ran a 5k, or your body carried you up to some beautiful place where you got the most breathtaking view of your life.

One last thought: Body love and self-improvement are not mutually exclusive. I love my body, yes, but I also dye my hair, I’d like to lose 5-10 pounds, and I’m always working on improving my strength and flexibility. Loving your body doesn’t mean you wouldn’t change anything about it! I think of it this way: you can love your house, but still want to remodel the kitchen and paint the bathroom. The important thing is to have a healthy attitude about the changes you’re making! Love the body you’re in, but also love the progress you make with it and the different body you’ll have down the road.

That time I ate pizza in a bikini

March 20, 2014March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Best pizza party EVER!

Last week I went over to Liora K‘s house to participate in a little photo shoot to promote the Body Love Conference. The theme? Eating pizza in our bikinis. I was totally down with that idea, even when a cold wind blew in and it started raining! Luckily the weather cleared up just in time for us to lounge around the pool. And lounge we did. This is just the start… a lot more beautiful women showed up lately and one of them brought cookies and brownies. I can’t wait to see the rest of the photos!

All of this was to provide images for this article on the Body Love Conference in The Tucson Weekly. Apparently there are three full-page images in the print version! I need to go pick one up today, and if you’re local I recommend you do, too. I also recommend attending the BLC if you can, because we all need to learn to be more loving of our bodies.

Body love has been on my mind a lot lately, not just because of this photo shoot and the fact that the BLC is just around the corner, but the fact that once your eyes are opened to a concept, you see it all around you. Earlier this week I got an e-mail from Sephora offering me a gift of 5 summer must-haves. What were they? Five self-tanning products! Well, I don’t tan. It’s not in my nature. I burn and I freckle, and I’m OK with that. I used to dislike my freckles because I didn’t want to be “cute” but I have embraced the fact that I can be cute AND sexy. I love my long white legs, and I’m not going to tan them or my white belly and back to fit some arbitrary sense of beauty. I think I’m beautiful the way I am, pale skin, squishy belly, freckles and all.

Aside from the body love aspect, my favorite part of this photo shoot was Liora’s neighbor’s dog. He was a HUGE weimereiner, and he kept putting his feet and head on top of the brick wall and just watching us. No barking, growling, or anything else, just watching. I’m pretty sure he wanted pizza and ear scritches. He was absolutely adorable!

Oh, and while I was writing this, Liora sent me MORE PICTURES! YES!

No big deal, this is just how we eat pizza. In our bikinis.

Look at those beautiful, happy faces!

In Defense of the Selfie

March 10, 2014March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

I posted this “selfie” on Thursday night as I was about to head out the door to Open Stage. Why? Well, I was feeling pretty happy about my freshly-hennaed hair and how I was wearing it down, and how cute my magenta glitter lipstick looked, and I wanted to share it with the world. I think it’s fun when dancers post a little “On my way to the show” picture too, as it builds the excitement.

Then today, I read this article titled “The Age of the Selfie” which suggested that I should not, in fact, be inflicting pictures of my face upon my friends. How dare I be so vain as to suggest that I might be a little pretty and that maybe people would like to see me? Well obviously I have a couple of problems with the anti-selfie sentiments that float around on the internet!

My first problem is the suggestion that there’s something wrong with feeling that you are pretty or cute or that your new haircut is awesome. I don’t have the best self-esteem but there are still days when I look in the mirror and think to myself “Self, you’re so darned cute today, look at that outfit and that makeup, you’re rockin’ it!” And while I don’t share all of those moments with the internet, sometimes I feel so good about myself that I do want to share, and then yes, I definitely enjoy the validating comments that I get from my friends.

It’s no secret that girls and women suffer from a lot of image-based insecurity. Whether it comes from what we see in the media, or how we were treated when we were kids, or rude comments in the street, or a complicated combination of all that and more, it’s a hard problem to combat. But it seems like there are segments of the population who feel like we’re supposed to feel bad about ourselves, and that feeling good about how we look is horrible vanity. Oh, we should care about how we look, we should primp and preen and dress to impress, but as soon as we acknowledge that we did a good job making ourselves presentable, we’re being narcissistic.

My second problem is that I think a lot of people who are against selfies have a deep misunderstanding of the nature of internet friendships. Sure, I have friends on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram that I see in person regularly, but I also have friends who I rarely if ever see face-to-face. Some of them are friends who I’ve only known on-line, others are people who I met in person but they’ve since moved away. I LIKE seeing selfies of my long-distance friends. I like knowing what they’ve done with their hair, what kind of clothes they’re wearing these days, what they’re out doing in the city they live in now. And a lot of my friends LIKE seeing selfies of me. Especially now that I bellydance, they always want to see pictures of my new costumes, what sort of makeup looks I’m experimenting with, and of course, videos of me dancing.

My third and final problem with all this anti-selfie raging is that it is the smallest, stupidest of problems to worry about. Sick of seeing a friend’s selfies? Just scroll past them. No big deal. If they post them constantly, you can even adjust your newsfeed on Facebook to not show their pictures. Honestly, what is it harming anybody if people like to post lots of pictures of themselves having fun, looking pretty, being bored, soliciting opinions on their new hair color, or anything like that? They’re not spreading hateful opinions or damaging misinformation or overplayed memes. They’re saying “Here’s what I’d look like if you were here with me right now” and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Getting fit

February 27, 2014March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Photo by Liora K Photography, belt and bra by Flip’n Tribal, Body by 30 Day Push-up Challenge

I’m not very fit right now. I don’t want to say that I’ve been lazy, because I have been getting things done, I just haven’t been as motivated as I could be. I don’t do as much working out at home as I should, and I’ve been skipping dance cardio classes because they’re not my favorite. So my body doesn’t look as awesome as it does in this picture by Liora K.

Earlier today I was thinking about my shoulders, because they were sore, and it made me think about how good they looked for that photo shoot, and it made me think that I should do some push-ups, but maybe not today because like I said, soreness (still not 100% recovered from palm flames because I’ve been using my shoulders for fan veils and dancing and keeping my arms attached to my torso). And then, as I was thinking these warring thoughts about fitness and rest, Liora asked me if I wanted to come over to her place to work out. It was like a sign! So I said yes and oh wow, am I already sore.

We did this Total Body Barre Workout from Fitness Blender and it was great! It only takes 40 minutes and all you need is a yoga mat, a chair to help you balance and optional small handweights. You might also want a friend to encourage you when you feel like you’re going to die! I think I might have given up if I’d been alone, but Liora and I had a definite “we’re in this together” sort of thing going on, and besides, there was salad waiting for us when we were done (I know, I sound like such a health nut, but it was a really good salad and I’ll eat cookies later).

I think I’ll do this workout again at home, because I really would like to get back into the habit of not just dancing, but exercising as well. Now if you’ll excuse me, my triceps are trying to fall off, I think I need to duct tape them in place.

The Meat on our Bones

December 4, 2013March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Jes The Militant Baker is on a crusade against nasty autocomplete messages in Google. Read her original post here. Although she started out with fat shaming, she branched out into skinny shaming too, because all shaming is bad. She opened up submissions to her readers and FB fans, and I decided to do the above image.

I’m not very good at graphic design and image stuff (as you all know from my beautiful “gettin’ opinionated” image that I make constant use of), so I didn’t put an autocomplete drop-down in mine. Instead I took my inspiration from the yucky quote “Bones are for dogs, real men want meat.” How disgusting. Not only is it skinny-shaming, but it reduces curvy women to a commodity, comparing them to a big, meaty steak. Don’t get me wrong, I love steak, but I don’t love it in the same way that a living, breathing, thinking human being deserves to be loved. And I also love bones, because without them, I’d be a floppy pile of skin and muscles and organs, and wouldn’t that be gross?

I chose the image I did because, well, I still really like how my shoulders look, but also the composition was perfect, there was enough open space over the fan veil to put my text and make it legible. Plus I knew Liora would be into the idea of her photo being used for a body-positive message!

Speaking of body positivity, if you’re into it and you’re in or will be in Tucson in April, you should totally come to the Body Love Conference (also organized by Jes). I already have my ticket and I am really excited to be part of the current movement away from shaming and towards healthier attitudes.

You should also check out the ever-growing album of posters made for this autocomplete campaign, because there’s some really good ones!

Be Thankful for your Body

November 28, 2013March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

Thanks for being pretty awesome, body!

When it comes to body love, I often talk the talk without walking the walk. I’ll post empowering articles and I’ll encourage other ladies, but then I look at my own body and I’m like “Teeth, why you gotta be so sticky-outy? Belly, why you gotta be so fat?* Hips, why are you so TIGHT?”

So I have to be honest, I haven’t been dancing this week. Part of it is natural laziness, and we don’t have bellydance class this week, but it was easy to make excuses because my right hip was so. damn. sore. And it has been for about a week. I don’t know what I did to it, but I am guessing at some point I stretched too far, or forced a stretch when I wasn’t warm enough, and I messed things up. I mean, it’s not unusual for me to have a little pain in my right hip after a really hard class, but this was a lot of pain and in different areas of my hip, and it sucked. And I honestly think I made it worse by using the pain as an excuse to not go do some ballet or what-have-you, because then I sat home and didn’t get warm and spent too much time sitting on the couch with 20+ lbs of dog pinning my hip into position. I’d think to myself “I should warm up and stretch this bad girl out while I watch this DVD” but then I’d sit down and someone would get into my lap and that would be it.

This was a good reminder to be kinder to my body, in my actions and my words. To honor my limits from day to day, to have patience with the sloooow progress of stretching and not try to force my hips to be more like other dancers’ hips. And besides, my body gets a lot of other things right. It’s given me long, flowing hair, strong fingernails, elegant limbs, pretty eyes, and skin that takes ink well. I don’t have any major health problems, I don’t have to wear glasses, and I don’t have allergies. Good job, body! You’re pretty awesome.

Take a moment and thank your own body for the stuff it gets right. After all, it’s the only body you’re going to get, until we perfect either cloning technology or android bodies.

*Ok, that’s my own damn fault. I eat cookies every day. Cookies are amazing.

A Feminist Message from Liora K and Sophia Ravenna

June 19, 2013March 25, 2014Sophia Ravenna

While I was at Liora K Photography’s studio on Saturday she asked if I would like to pose for a feminist photo too, and I said yes! It was something I’d wanted to do for a while, because I really love what she’s doing, but I also wasn’t sure what I wanted to say. She’d already covered a lot of my hot-button issues, but she came up with a new twist for me. Hooray! Here’s what she said about it on her Facebook page:

Wait, aren’t all the feminist photos naked?

Not this one. Sophia Ravenna is a good friend and talented dancer. I used to dance with her in Skirt Full of Fire Dance Company and Fire & Gold Belly Dance. As a bellydancer, she and her peers frequently have to correct the misconception that during their performances, key parts of their costumes will be removed, and that this is done for the purpose of pleasing an adult male audience.

Stripping and Burlesque are amazing forms of performance. It’s entirely possible that in those acts, performers may draw on bellydance moves. Fusion dance is amazing, and it’s great to watch!

This should not give anyone permission though, to assume that they have the right to see a performer take their clothes off, or ask a performer at an event advertised as “Bellydance” if they will take their clothes off while they perform. It’s disrespectful to their craft, and can make performers worried for their personal safety.

Admire the hard work that goes into costumes – many are made by the dancers themselves! Ask questions about the craft, learn, educate yourself. Enjoy the performance! But never assume, and never approach, that a dance is always done to titillate.

#teardownthepatriarchy

Even with that comment in the middle about stripping and burlesque being amazing, at least one person still thought we were trying to slut-shame strippers, which was absolutely not our aim, so I’d like to reiterate: I am 100% cool with stripping, burlesque, and pole. I know lots of great ladies who perform in those styles and I love what they do. But it is not what I do, anymore than I do tap, line dancing or traditional Israeli folk dance. I am a belly dancer and I do belly dance, which happens to not involve taking my clothes off. I don’t leave my clothes on because I think it’s wrong for other women to take theirs off, I leave them on because they are part of my dance. I am not ashamed of my body, but I am proud of my handmade velvet bra adorned with Afghani coins and Turkoman buttons.

The important thing is, a woman should never be asked or told to take her clothes off just because she is dancing. It is our choice whether or not we strip, not yours. Even in arts like burlesque and pole, there’s no guarantee of a “reveal.” Many pole performers choose to stay fully clothed. Many burlesque acts only do a partial reveal, or no reveal, instead focusing on a cheeky sense of humor. Even some performers who do strip may not do so at all events, if it’s not appropriate for the audience or they just don’t feel like it.

So in conclusion, the only people who I want to shame are the people who think they deserve more control over my body than I have. I won’t take it off, and you just have to live with that.