Yesterday I was featured in great company as part of a Shameless Photography photo spread in People magazine online.

“These Women Are Redefining Pin-Up Photography with Beautifully Diverse Portraits”

I read the comments criticizing the women in wheelchairs, with alopecia, with curves, and my armpit hair and cri… just kidding. I laughed, because the petit outrage means the intentional work here is well-done and important.

The shock demonstrates the importance of showing all kinds of women’s bodies in the public sphere. Fat bodies, crip bodies, Black bodies, hairy bodies.

The disgust aimed at my body in particular lets me know that I’m succeeding in my goals as a destroyer of the unspeakablility of bodies, a monstrosity against normalized standards of femininity, and in destroying the lunch digestion of people who spend energy judging others: #punkforlife.

The thinly-veiled jealousy at my babeliness + armpit hair proves how mindblowing truly basic shit like human body hair is within the current status quo, how great the work Shameless Photography does is.

I’m sure all the people hiding behind fake names in the comments will understand exactly how it goes when they’re featured in national medi…oh wait. Get your message in People magazine, haters.

Our message is: every body is a good body, and we recruit.

For every one negative comment there’s a growing mass of women who just got more tools to love themselves, be themselves, and do what they want with their bodies.

For all you out there: live your babely life and enjoy. There are so many more of us who are saying “Yes, you, exactly as you are.”