Hey lovelies!

Today I wanted to write about the most recent blog homework topic! Respect!

For me, there are so many types of respect.

Self respect:

Respect has to start with our own individual practice. I know that I for one am so guilty of letting this slide sometimes, especially when I'm not in the best head space. It means appreciating your body, and learning to be gentle with ourselves - mentally, emotionally and physically. Listen to your body. We need to remember to be respectful of our bodies need for nutrition, exercise, rest and love, especially without judgment or criticism. I'm easy to get frustrated when my body is feeling weak and frail, but it's just our bodies way of telling us that we need a break.

Respect for others:

I feel in order to truly respect others you must be open-minded, and accept that others may not have the same values or beliefs as you do - but are still worthy of respect. By putting yourself in other people's shoes, we can perhaps see a view that may be hard to respect, in a different light. I feel like this also goes hand in hand with learning to be more self aware. Respect does not ask that you agree with what someone believes, it just asks that you listen openly and accept it as a reality for another person.

The best thing you can do if someone is disrespecting you, is to just understand that it's only them projecting their own insecurities on you. Have your own respect for yourself and the rest doesn't matter as much, when you know your own worth.

Unfortunately there will always be people that have a specific criteria of what they deem worthy of respect. I think it's also important to speak about us girls being so open and vulnerable with our bodies online, especially nude or revealing - that many people will deem that as disrespectful. I know that I have been at the end of a lot of "Have some self respect" comments over the type of modelling I do, mainly from people that hold quite opposite views.

At the end of the day, "Have some self respect" has nothing to do with me. It's about the other person rating and weighing my behaviour against a 2 dimensional caricature of a woman that they think deserves basic decency. I respect myself. I think what most people mean is, "please conform to my personal, rigid beliefs of what I deem acceptable for a woman because it's up to me who deserves to be treated like a human being or not based entirely on meaningless socialized and sexist values."

Never stop believing in yourself, and the respect you have for yourself will only project onto others <3

I want to say a quick thank you also for everybody that has left some love on my most recent set, Haven shot by @waikiki <3 It is by far my proudest set and I feel so lucky to be in a position to share it with you all.

thank you @missy and @rambo <3

All my love,

Akiramai