Summertime or Showing Time?

With the arrival of summer comes the time to show our bodies. For so many people, it's a perfect time: fewer clothes, perfect outfits, bikinis and short dresses, and all day at the beach. It sounds idyllic, right? Well, maybe it's because it is for some of you reading this. My reality is usually a different one. And just like our bronzes come out, so do our body differences. Especially when we talk about disability.

We live with a condition of disability, but we are no less able, our body is not less valid. That is the conception that society has about us. We struggle with the idea of the desired body and the comparisons that society leaves us every day on the table: unreal standards of beauty that distance us from the truly beautiful, that we are all unique. The problem is not in our bodies; it is in the minds that reject them. Thoughts that make us feel that we are not valid, that we are not good, that we do not deserve to show how we are. That censorship we submit to comes from an ableist society that points out differences as something negative, but often, it also comes from ourselves, in the first person, because we have been taught that this is how it should be, and we can become our worst enemy without anyone saying anything.

With that social pressure lurking, what should we do? Nowadays, diversity is increasingly accepted, or so it seems. Disability is still quite taboo on many occasions. But what is more diverse than going against the rules? What's more beautiful than embracing your differences and showing them to the world? If how the world perceives us is the reflection of how we treat ourselves and how we accept ourselves, I don't want a world that does not accept me, that does not treat me with dignity, that does not value me, that makes me feel less. I want a world that, if it points out my disability, is to highlight all the good in it. That should be the purpose. But even if it sounds contradictory, the motto of the empowered woman also weighs. "She can do anything". "She is invincible". Of course we do; of course, we are. But let us rest. These hot summer months can be exhausting for our minds because if normal, we already fight with stigmas, now we do even more. That's where you have to make a scale. One day, we can blame ourselves for not feeling good, and another day, we can have the best vibes. But in the end, what we will be doing is listening to our body.

Yes, our body. I admit that I have felt ashamed of it many times, that I have not treated it well, and that I have not respected it. Me? The one who spreads awareness about this? Yes, I confess. And many times, I have thought, "Would I feel different if I had no disability?". I believe that my conception of myself is closely linked to the education that I have received. My parents always told me how wonderful my body was; they taught me to love myself as I am, and this is my kind of "normal"; I know no other. I always say that disability makes us see the world differently, and this is very difficult to explain; we see the world with different eyes. So I think that even if I was at my worst, I wouldn't stop loving myself, I wouldn't stop loving my body, and I wouldn't stop loving my disability. By the way, I find it the perfect time to celebrate this declaration of self-love now that it is July. It is Disability Pride Month, a month in which we claim our rights and non-discrimination towards our community. These days, I am even more sensitive to seeing the wonderful people we are, and it pushes me to be very, very proud.

That's why I invite you to really show up at this showing time. And don't blame yourself if you ever want to hide because it's okay, too. But on these days that you can be seen, do it with the confidence that there's nothing wrong with you. Your disability and diversity are not impediments to enjoying; they are impediments to making us believe them.

Let your body be shown to the world!