What do you like about your body, for no reason?

[not_ally]

So what part of your body do you like, for a non-apparent reason, and why? I posted about my hands on another thread, and it got me to thinking.

For me, it *is* my hands. They are ugly, no ifs-ands-or buts. Not in a JLo booty way, either, where reasonable minds could differ. They are knobby and dry, my fingers are short and stubby, my nails are constantly a catastrophe, my palms – despite never having been used for manual labor in the occupational sense – look and feel as if I have been picking crops all my life.

And that is why I like them, I guess. My predecessors, from a part of S. India called Kerala, *did* do manual labor, we came from a caste that was about as low as you could go w/o actually being untouchables. Our caste “job” was cultivating coconut trees, harvesting them (your hands got a workout when you climbed those babies without the benefit of modcons), and then distilling them into alcohol. Yup, moonshiners!

A couple of generations ago we got educated kind of en-masse – the government, at least in my part of India, which is/was a weird one in some ways – was v. good about establishing the equivalent of affirmative action programs for lower caste people. Now everyone in my family, women and men alike, are doctors, lawyers, engineers, definitely a case of “how do you keep them on the farm once that they’ve seen Paree”

But when I see my hands I am occasionally reminded of the folks that came before, worked so hard, and made my life possible, which is kind of a beautiful thing. And they have earned their ugliness in other ways, a lifetime of typing has given them carpal tunnel and joint problems, but they still work really hard, and relatively uncomplainingly for me, bless their hearts. Ok, that may be the very embodiment of a mixed metaphor!

Hah, you guys thought I was going to talk about something racy, didn't you? Sorry

 

[Obsidian]

What a great story, thanks for sharing.

I don't have anything with near that meaning but I like my toes. I have little short, sausage toes that are even at the ends. Most people seem to have a middle toe that is longer then the rest or toes that are kind thin with a larger end. Mine are not like that, they are the same length and thickness.

People tell me they are cute, even strangers. Years ago I was at a large outdoor flower garden when a very dirty and rough looking homeless man approached me with a little cheap camera. He told me some BS about how he was a student doing a report on feet/footwear, he asked if he could take pictures of my feet (I had on sandles) for his report.
I knew it wasn't for a report, that he probably had a foot fetish and wanted pictures for "private time" but hey, it wasn't hurting me so I let him take his pictures. We had a good laugh over it for quite a while. Sometimes I wonder if those pics are still out there.

 

[not_ally]

Obsidian, this made me laugh. I'm glad that you let him take the pictures

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

For me it is my legs - I have a very Scottish body fat distribution which is common in my family - no fat on the legs just around the middle. Rugby player thighs and a right ghetto boot-ay (I was nicknamed J-Lo in one place I worked!) it means I only have to do the slightest bit of exercise and my legs make the lassies swoon. Now if only they didn't have the Scottish colour........

 

[Obsidian]

Craig, you poor misguided soul. You should be knocked upside your head. Be proud of your pasty legs, I am of mine. I have the worse pasty, uneven, sensitive skin. Just thinking about the sun makes me burn and I love every inch of it. I truly feel sorry for people who spend their life unhappy with their skin tone, I think what you are born with is perfect for you

Oh, and thanks for the visual I now have about sexy legs on a soap maker. I do like me some nice legs on a man.

 

[not_ally]

I like a nice grab-able butt on a man too. No need to go further with that

Also, Obsidian, I loved how you are happy with your paleness. When I was little I lived in a place where brown-ness was bad, it did a lot of damage, for a long time. Now I look at my ugly hands and the one thing I do think is objectively beautiful is the honey/cinnamon brown!

 

[Obsidian]

I think its heartbreaking that any culture would be so against their own people that variations in skin tone can cause so much pain. Indians are some of the most beautiful people on the planet, I love all your skin tones and there have been times over the years I wished I was more golden but never enough to damage myself trying to tan.

Do you think if we post pictures of our hands and toes, Craig will share too:shock:

 

[not_ally]

Craig is going to have to share a picture of something other than his hands and toes He is probably blanching reading this. O, you have pretty feet, I assume from that pretty hands (they seem to go together.) Mine really are so awful that while I *am* proud of them in a perverse way, I am pretty sure they do not deserve to be immortalized

Indians are really **(^*^ up about skin color, they are v. self hating in that respect, lighter is always better. But the pain came from living in England in the mid-60's, and the white people/general culture there and then, really. They were tough and it was hard.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I'm not blanching, I'm having a good old chuckle! Here's a teaser -

 

[not_ally]

That is *so* not what I was talking about, EG. But I will settle for the latest picture of baby EG instead, get it up, would you?

 

[newbie]

Trying to decrease the pale factor a bit, I see! I was kind of hoping for a waist-down shot including the JLo factor.

I am milky white and get teased about it a lot. I even had one of my neighbors rear back when I yanked up my pants leg to show her my pogo stick rash. She was appalled. It's a running joke in my family that I look like skim milk and can glow in that dark. Every summer, I would have to put my leg next to everyone else's so they could marvel at it. I should say that the teasing is not mean or anything like that and I am fine with my color.

 

[Obsidian]

Yeah, I was expecting a bit more too lol. That is a beautiful spot craig, is that your place? I'll have to get toe pics in a bit, this requires a bit of um, beautifying first. I spend most of the summer bear foot and it shows.

Newbie, I get the same kind of reaction but its usually along the lines of "I'm blind!" My hubby is even paler, he even makes me cringe at times. Poor guy looks like he's been locked in the basement his whole life.

 

[The Efficacious Gentleman]

I did say it was just a taste - no one will buy the milk if I give the cow away

It's not our house, I'm afraid to say - but the uncle of The Admirable Lady. He lives next door to her parents and has an open pool policy for us, which is most welcome.


Mere is the wee bairn in a milk coma - he really is out of it after a feed!

 

[lionprincess00]

Hmm. Love my lips. Naturally nice and plump, not too big, and look good in red lipstick hubby calls them something I dare not post here, so I'm pretty "peacock proud" of that!

Now, an off body part would have to be my hands. Being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis September 2013, I've seemed to have already developed minor deformities, especially my middle fingers. My mom would tell me it's from over use
My grandmother passed in 2007. I miss her whenever I look at my hands. I wish I had her here to talk to her about it. So my stupid broken hands that give me such trouble now, that I want to yell at most of the times, also bring memories of Grandma back and make me long to commiserate with her over this STUPID WORTHLESS illness that ticks me off beyond words. She'd totally understand and we'd be two peas in a pod.

And couldn't type that without tearing up thinking about her <3

 

[snappyllama]

Hubba hubba @ TEG.

I always hated my bum. I'm Czech and German... So very much shaped like my stocky peasant/ farmer ancestors. JLO didn't have anything on me. Getting jeans was always a challenge- will they fit over the bum, over my gigantic, muscular calves? Will they not gap like crazy everywhere else? I know they will be too long... No matter how skinny I got, the bottom refused to go away.

It wasn't until I was in high school and worked with a couple of lovely Indian women that told me they wished they had a "heavy bottom" like mine that I had any idea that anyone would like to be shaped like me. Thankfully, DH doesn't seem to mind it.

Big bottom girls unite!

 

[kumudini]

Little EG is soooo cute!

No part of me, I'm afraid, is absolutely beautiful. I actually used to hate my big nose, now I'm ok with it. The one thing I do like about my body is my skin. While it definitely had its fair share of rough years including some drastic, like 180 degree changes, it never gave me a cause for much grief. Acne were for the most part, limited and cleared easily. It's content with good basic care, never had to go to a skin doctor until now( hoping that would continue). No hundreds and thousand dollars spent on it, the most expense was on moisturizer which I needed most every day for the past 15 years until very recently. Even now, it takes all the soaps and BBs I make with such ease.
On the verge of turning the big 40 and having a skin that looks like something in its late 20s, I guess I could say I'm real happy with my skin.
B, your story was an interesting read, about the coconuts and moonshine. Most importantly though it shows your awesome outlook. I actually do belong to an even lower caste, the so called untouchable, but I can tell you that I've never witnessed discrimination in my own life, of which I spent 28 years in India. My people like yours could be found in all walks of life, thanks to the then government and the constitution written largely by an untouchable. They were politicians and held public offices even before I was born. They were doctors,engineers. My mom is a teacher.
My Husband is from a 'higher caste', there were no real objections to our marriage. While my town life is a protected one I'm far from being naïve to believe that everything everywhere is as it should be. The discrimination never completely goes away, it is so ingrained into the brains of 'some' castes who feel superior, just like the racism, which will never go away completely. I'm just thankful that I got and still get to live in a better world. Sorry, the rest of you for this unnecessary info.
On the other hand B, I want to see a pic of your hands, I'm sure they are just as beautiful as ours, as in rest of us. Working hands can never be ugly or whatever you call it, you are a master at putting yourself down.

 

[DeeAnna]

I really enjoyed being a grad student at Iowa State University when I was in my late 30s. I got the pleasure of meeting really neat women from all over the world, and some of my best friends from that time were from Taiwan and India. An Indian girlfriend got her gorgeous shiny black hair cut to shoulder length. It looked really nice, but she agonized before she went back home for a visit because her mom was going to have a fit that she cut her hair. I heard later that her mom eventually got over it, but there was a row! I loved how her 24 kt gold jewelry looked against her lovely caramel skin color.

The ladies from India threatened to put me in a sari. I managed to tactfully avoid that, even though I love the fabric from which saris are made and love how saris look on women young and old. If the young married Indian gals had trouble managing all that folded and tucked fabric, and they grew up knowing about wearing them ... well, I had no idea how I was going to avoid seriously embarrassing myself.

What's my favorite body part? I've been thinking about that today, and I want to say it's my left hand. I'm left handed, my mother Joyce is left handed, and her mother Viola was also left handed. Left handedness ties three generations of us women together, and I like that.

 

[not_ally]

Oh man, so many posts I want to reply to. The most overwhelming is the little bairn. EG, it must be hard to put him down. I am afraid that if he were mine I would constantly be selfishly nuzzling him and waking him up. Just heaven on earth.

Obsidian and Newbie, I love how different all of our skin is. I used to sometimes poke my white friends and see how long it would take for their skin to go back to normal, is that weird? It is even more fun when we *really* mix it up, my sisters are married to white guys, and it was always interesting to see what the end result will be when they had kids It was/is always super beautiful and interesting (to me, at least), though.

LP and Snappy, that is one of the things that I love about my ugly hands, my dad has them too, and when I see them them, I think of him. LP, he is still here but far away, it makes me sad but glad, you know. Snappy, my mom would love your butt. She is old now, but was really beautiful in her youth. The only thing I ever heard her complain about, w/r/t to her appearance was being booty-challenged. She did hate that, though

K, you and I have gone through similar journeys. Being an Indian woman is not a cake walk, there are so many weird cultural shibboleths and problems. But I would not have chosen a different path, in the end. A lot of pain, but it makes me who I am.

D, I am the biggest slob on earth in terms of clothing, all of my stuff is covered with soap stains. My hands – in addition to being ugly – are usually multi-colored too, from colorants. But I love my nice gold jewelry – I have some beautiful bangles from my grandmother, they are probably 100 years old now – that I never take off. Somehow, it works!

 

[tbeck3579]

So many cute posts. For me it is my soul/heart, and when I'm running low on tolerance and forgiveness I'll go with my brain/logic None of my body parts can make me a good person, and none of my body parts can think for me. My mom lost her sight and hearing, my husband lost a limb and it didn't change who they were. Of course my soul/heart and brain/logic can also be the worst part of me too, hehehe. It's a double edged sword.

 

[maya]

Everything. There is nothing I do not like about my body. Don't get me wrong, there are individual aspects that could be improved but I still like my spine. My spine is part of my body and I love my body. My eyesight is not hawkeye-esque but I love my eyes. I love my brain and soul and body. <3