Here at Molke we have always been passionate about body positivity and encouraging you to love the skin you're in. We realise that this isn't always easy and sometimes just accepting your body is as much as you can ask for. We will be moving more towards speaking about body neutrality and have asked our friend Imogen Fox to write a bit about what this means to them.
Friends.
My body and I have had a complex and bumpy journey, pun intended. 37 years on and I still don't know if I could say we were genuine friends.
I am grateful, grateful for the things we've managed to pull through together, all the trauma and the pain we've survived. But I'm always aware of how much trauma and pain has been brought into my life because of how we looked. How the world around us decided things about us, how that altered their behaviour and how that often left us in danger or on the margins of society.
My body now is a collage of all the things we've experienced, covered in scars and marks that detail our history. It's a road map of where I started and when I find myself now. It's absolutely not all sad memories, despite the medical interaction, the falls and the breaks, it's also a map of first kisses, tight embraces and funny anecdotes.
Self love has always very much felt like a beauty standard to me and my stubborn body. Like an assault course, full of jumps and muddy challenges that I can't work my way through. But body neutrality, that felt like something we could work on together.
Finding a middle ground seemed like an extreme after the years of darkness and deprivation of kindness we've live through together, but it felt so much more tangible than the pressure to love something that could be so difficult to live with.
There are so many ways that I've found softness and grace for my body, for my hard working and powerful body. Some of those things have taken place in my mind, allowing sharp edges to be smoothed out. But a similar process took place outwardly too. Dropping the harsh beauty ideals meant finding comfort, in all kinds of ways. It meant investing in accessible, joyful clothing that made me smile and embraced all the flowing softness that extends from my frame.
Molke isn't just underwear. Molke represents a movement of bodies who are detoxing from the poisonous pressures that our society have been forcing on us since we were identified as Femme. Molke is a community where bodies aren't met with confusing and ill-fitting structures or rules. It's a safe and freeing space that enables those of us who've lived through the hardest of times can find kinship and allyship alongside a bloody lovely bra.
We still have a long way to go when it comes to finding a natural space both in society and within ourselves. But while I take on that life long journey, I plan to do it in the most comfortable underwear possible, surrounded by people who get it.
Imogen has a fantastic Instagram account that you should definitely go and follow. They are also featured in the documentary about diet culture The Body Fights Back which we are very excited about!
