Tweet of the week goes to Lizardco2014 who said, 'Yes, let's reclaim "like a girl"',
and she was saying that in response to my video how to run 'like a girl'. Let's do it,
I'm going to make an Ask Cristen 'like a girl'. Or would it be 'like a woman'. Both?
So this week on Stuff Mom Never Told You I talked about what it really means, to me at
least, to run 'like a girl.' On Wednesday I talked about who invented glitter. On Friday
I talked about five places in the world where brides don't wear white because I'm getting
married-psyche. Now it's time for Ask Cristen, first of thanks to everyone who watched and
commented on last week's Ask Cristen video why are western female nipples naughty? I
was especially interested in guys' takes on their own nipples. Cupcake McFluffy said,
'As a guy if you have hair around the nipple which does not match the rest of the area
around the nipples yes, yes that is shameful (for some reason). I have a feeling that nipple
hair is the source of embarrassment for a lot of people. Sam Takara said, 'As a guy
I can't say I'm crazy about mine. I won't wear shirts or t-shirts when they're obvious
and I generally don't go around shirtless unless I'm at the beach or pool. Granted I'm
overweight so its not like I'm running around with a Terry Crews body. And that might be
the key there. I hide my weight well, except for that.' By that I'm assuming he means his
nipples. I'm so glad I don't have to say the word nipple many more times in this video.
Only three more times, nipple, nipple, nipple. Now onto this week's Ask Cristen question
which is coming from someone who would like to remain anonymous. 'I was wondering if you
had any advice on how to overcome this insecurity of mine. I can't seem to shake the feeling
that I'm a butter face. I find myself dreading going to the beach, hiding my body so no one
sees how ugly my face is in comparison. How can I shake this seemingly unshakeable issue?'
For people not familiar with this term 'butter face', it is a horrible portmanteau smash-up
of the words but-her-face, as in she's super hot but her face. The first thing we can do
for the betterment or butterment now I'm just thinking about butter, of everybody is maybe
just don't use these kinds of words. When you call someone a butter face, you are collapsing
that entire person down to an isolated criticism about an isolated part of their body. That's
umm, what's the word...awful. My number one advice to this person who wrote in based on
my experience as well, I'm about to get all camp counselor on you, focus on the inside
first. What is it about those criticisms that are truly taking control of your life to the
point that you don't want to be seen out in public? And by the same token what is it inside
of you that makes you you? One thing that I've learned the older that I get and the
more people say that I've dated, the outside stuff yeah of course it makes a difference
in terms of initial attraction but it's also the stuff on the inside, when you really get
to know a person that's the glue. I have been super attracted to people who are not conventionally
attractive or my friends didn't find attractive because there was something about personality
or creativity or humor that just drew me to that person. If you let this fear of what
your outside looks like take such control over you none of that cool unique inside stuff
that really makes you you is going to come out. Prioritizing of the inside over the outside
to me that's, that's the hardest work of all of that. When you really think about the concept
of personal body love and acceptance that's downright radical. That's almost subversive.
What you're saying is alright listen, I'm going to ignore to the best of my abilities
all of this overwhelming beauty standard BS and I'm going to do me the best I possibly
can and in the process of doing me I'm going to be really good to other people as well.
Finally when it does come to this outside stuff I think it's good to remember a little
bit of science. Beauty standards that we see are often genetic anomalies. There are so
many individual genes responsible for the features on our face and on top of those genes
you have all of the possible different genetic combinations and variations. Models that you
see, we always talk about how they won the genetic lottery--no they just got a certain
genetic makeup. And it's pretty rare. If everybody looked like a model, our standard of beauty
would probably be completely different. Enough from me now I want to hear from you. What
kind of advice do you have for learning how to accept and even love yourself, inside and
out and what are the kinds of butter face issues that you deal with? And guys I want
to hear from you as well, I know this is not a girl-exclusive issue so let me know in the
comments below and as always, ask me your questions so I can give you some answers.
Or maybe some anecdotes. Definitely some thoughts. Hopefully some advice.