A month ago, I took boudoir shots.
I don’t even know where to start because I have so much to
say about this topic.
First off, taking boudoir shots has always been a “bucket
list” item for me. Catch that, “for me!?” I have always just wanted to capture a
different side of me and have that to look back on when I’m old and less in
love with my body. I love photography. I love taking pictures, having pictures
to hold, and just looking at good photos. It never seemed anything to be but
photos, just art. No negativity was attached to it.
Then I saw a post online. It was by a Christian woman who
stated a negative comment regarding taking boudoir pictures for your husband. *Gulp*
Your HUSBAND?!?! Creating pornographic pictures for your husband?!?! Now, this
got me fired up on so many levels.
Did it change my mind about taking photos as an unmarried woman? No.
Will I let someone impose shame upon me and my body? No.
Didn’t God create our unique bodies and sex?
Why do “Christians” have to turn sex and art into something dirty?
Why are these pictures "dirty" just because there is a bedroom
ambiance? I’m fairly certain that I was more clothed than many teenagers on the
beach frolicking after church.
See, the part of that statement that fired me up most was HUSBAND. I firmly believe that acts in
a healthy married relationship create intimacy, promote healing, and unlock
barriers. I believe that sex is designed for just that. It is essential. I do not believe a woman
using her body or "sexiness" to manipulate men is right, and that is not what I’m talking
about. If your husband sees you nude after the shower, why can’t he see you semi-nude or
nude in a photo that only he sees? While I do not feel that we are responsible
for another’s sin, I feel that we can help husbands avoid looking elsewhere by
appreciating our bodies as women and being intimate with a husband (which includes being adventurous and fun).
I’m not married yet so I have the disclaimer that I will
have a lot to learn. But these are all my thoughts based on my own spirituality and
what I know about God. I mean, God-God, not what any shamed-based religion told me
about God.
I loved taking the shots. It was the most fun I’ve had in a
long time. It wasn’t awkward. Maybe it wasn’t awkward because my body is what
it is and I own it. I don’t believe most women look like the women on the cover
of magazines because I know they have been edited. We are imperfect. Our bodies tell stories. Each scar, stretch mark, or whatever tell some kind of story that most likely changed our lives in some way. Can we celebrate that? I live in my personal reality and not in
the atmosphere that media has tried to dictate for me to reside. Could I be skinnier? Yes. I refused to wait
for that ever-changing "target goal weight" to take the pictures. What if I don’t get there? What if I
gain weight? I’ll then want to be back here, now, at this weight. If I reach my
target, I can celebrate with new pictures.
It was so hard to actually choose less than 20 pictures from near the 2000 that
I wanted to have forever in my possession. When I went in for the viewing, I was
in awe of how beautiful I looked
am. The photographer did a fantastic job
of catching the right moments and right angles to show my curves in the best
way for me to better appreciate them. These are the same curves I see in the
mirror and scheme methods to erase.
I kept thinking how I wish that all women see themselves as
they are in the photographs. The photographs are US. I chose not to be edited
at all. No photo-shopping off arm fat. No taking off extra tummy. I am me. I am
beautiful. I am exactly who God created me to be. I wrote a post before on how women should see
themselves that you can read here. I imagine so many women holding their chins up higher when they
walk in a room more confidently when they have that image in their heads of them in their
photographs—NOT the image they see in the mirror at night or in the mornings
when an inner voice whispers lies.
This is a bucket list item that I loved checking off. I highly
encourage ALL women to do this. If you need an excuse, sure do it for your
husband’s birthday or a holiday or an anniversary. He will love it. But know that
it is more than okay to do it for YOU!
You're beautiful. Believe it.
Love,
Danielle
She is worth far more than rubies.
Proverbs 31:10
