SKIN IS IN

 

There is, I think, a healthy trend that I am seeing with celebrities and so-called influencers towards better body acceptance. Nudity acceptance, to be specific.

I don't mean social nudity, but comfort in your own skin nudity. Acceptance that nobody - nobody - possesses a perfect body. 

Just this morning is a news report on singer songwriter Shania Twain posing nude for her most recent album cover. 

"If I look at myself from head to toe in the mirror I see my faults … I’m just tired of that lack of freedom. I wanna be more relaxed and comfortable in my own skin," she said. "When you’re naked, now you’re relying entirely on your own love of yourself and respect for yourself."

It's a trend, particularly among singers and female singers in particular, and actors - male actors in particular - who are intent on breaking up the taboos and limitations of being embarrassed by our own bodies. Singer Amy Sheppard,of the Australian pop group Sheppard, launched a campaign last year on her  Instagram and other pages she called "Kiss My Fat Ass" to showcase that her body is fine the way it is. Accompanied by a hysterical music video, she's putting her thumb in the eye of critics. She's a little hefty by modern rock-star standards, and she's okay with it. (She's married to Lachlan Stuart, a man dedicated to male physical fitness, and who accepts and loves her as she is, a powerful message in and of itself.)

For New Years Amy posted "In 2022, let’s leave behind judging others, judging ourselves and placing body types up on pedestals. The best body type is the one that lets you live out your dreams vivaciously."

And it's a great message to send to younger people. It's okay to be exactly the way you are, and comfortable in your own skin.

And it's not just the ladies. Actor and rapper Machine Gun Kelly posted an hysterical shot of him nude (a towel strategically covering his genitals) on a film set with a set worker in the background. Actors Peter Sarsgaard and Jason Segal, neither of which sport highly physical forms, have done full nude scenes and are unabashed about doing them.

"The full-frontal nudity? I thought that was hilarious," Segel, who played Peter Bretter in the film, explains. "I was actually not very uncomfortable doing it. I really felt free. You have to put it in the context that this was 2006, 2007, and this hadn't been done before, in my recollection, where the main guy was going to be naked in the first five minutes of the movie."

Brittany Spears, the Kardassians, the male cast of Magic Mike, are all making skin popular again. And many of them are highlighting the natural looks of being themselves.

For years I've been decrying the increasingly puritanical outcries against seeing skin, and it's great to see celebrities and influencers pushing back. Maybe the pendulum has started to swing back towards acceptance.

And that's a healthy trend. As the commercial says: "Love the skin you're in!"

"Chill, it's just skin"