Miss Representation

A good friend on my left, the movie began.
I have to tell you a little about this friend. She is one of the strongest women I have ever met in my life. She is dominant, she is real, and she doesn't let anyone stomp on her. She is also impulsive and forgetful, and very headstrong and stubborn. Behind her stubborness however, she has a heart full of forgiveness and understanding.
I know this should be a contradiction, but strangely enough, it's not.
This strong woman, with conviction and passion, I admired. She was beautiful, and chaotic. The way she was created, the perfect woman. I admired her tenacity and feared her judgment. In the end, she always showed compassion. She was the strongest leader I knew, and someone I dearly loved, with bleach blonde hair falling in her face and tattoos on her small but intensely strong arms.
I always forgot how short she was--maybe it was because her personality was so loud, her prescence so awe inspiring.
During the movie, the beginning portion was about self harm.
I cringed. I definitely had not been safe from this epidemic of self-loathing. So many girls I knew had inflicted pain on themselves, because they hated something about their bodies or themselves in general. Self harm plagued my own past.
No girl was safe from its possibility.
Not even the strong woman sitting next to me.
I thought, how could someone I admired and loved so much think bad thoughts about herself?
I wondered if people asked the same question of me.
I know I would hope no one would ever feel the pain about themselves I had felt. But I knew people did. This movie brought into light the reasons they did.
Why did people have to feel this way?
I wanted it to stop. I wanted my love and the love of others to stop it.
We were past our demons, but how many countless others are not?
How many others would never be?
I send my love, and hope to find the cure.