Women have always had tumultuous relationships with their bodies, whether of love, hate, or simply an informal truce. Our bodies are the medium upon which our life histories are written in blood, scars and stretch marks. We often have conversations about our bodies, but how often do we speak directly to them?
Beautiful Machines: Letters to Our Bodies is a collection of real women’s letters to their bodies. What secrets spill when we address our bodies, our forever homes, in frank confession? The results are funny, thoughtful, tender, painful and bitter. Submitted by respondents to postings on Craig’s List and the Beautiful Machines Web site, these letters shine with power, quiver with shame and transcend even the most cavalier of dismissals.
HOW TO SUBMIT
If you'd like to participate in the project, please submit letters to me via the form below. (It may be easier to write in another document and cut and paste.)
Names are not required; you can give a pseudonym or choose to remain anonymous. Your privacy will be protected. The letter will be credited to the name you enter in the form. Letters may be lightly edited for clarity or length.
This project is open to cisgender women and those who identify as female, nonbinary, trans or intersex. This project explores women's experiences of being female, however they choose to express gender along the femininity-masculinity scale.
HOW DO I WRITE A LETTER TO MY BODY? Think of your body as its own entity. It is. It has a life apart from you, actually. Consider all of the hidden processes that keep us alive, the way ours organs function, the role of health and how we impact our own well-being through our choices. The body is its own, fully functioning vehicle, and you're like the passenger in that car. Consider the ways your body has served you with strength, vitality or pleasure and the ways you feel it has challenged you with illness, and real or perceived failings. Your body is your house. Your oldest ally in this earthly life. Talk to it! Address your body as if if were a person, a family member, a lover, partner or friend. It is. Thank it. Speak your grievances. Be frank. Be truthful. Make peace with it on paper. You'll be surprised what you discover. <3