Loving Yourself: Part of your body that you hate but now appreciate or love?

[Steve]

When I was young I'd listen to the radio, waitin' for my favorite songs. When they played...

Crap. That's an old Carpenter's song. Ignore that.

When I was young I hated the big gap between my front teeth. Hated the way it made me feel like some goober from the redneck sticks surrounding a tapped out trailer park. Then in my late twenties I heard people used to make a correlation between a big gap in your front teeth with being beautiful, lucky, and smart. It's true, Google it! The French have a term for it meaning "lucky teeth" (dents du bonheur,).

Then my wisdom teeth pushed through the back of my gums with all the vengeance of a teenage boy ripping his virgin girlfriend's hymen to shreds. Eventually my teeth migrated to the front of my mouth (evenly, so I was lucky in that aspect), thus closing my front gap. So my wisdom teeth f*cked me out of beauty, luck, and intelligence. It's a good thing that happened before age took its toll on me!

[JackTX]

I call disingenuity!

And on that day the First Annual GaySpeak Rearguard Photo Contest was born.... huzzah!

Seems like there's a lot of teeth issues. I guess I can see that. My new dentist mentioned braces as an option (none had ever before) and it was like he planted this seed in my head... I spent the next few months trying to decide if I needed them. And sure, I COULD straighten a few things but I eventually concluded he was just up-selling his services. Goddamn salespeople

And MAN I do love a forum with a good selection of murderous smilies..

[Lexington]

As I said way back at the start of the thread, I'm fine with my less-than-perfect body. And I think that's partially because of what I'm attracted to.

I dig guys. Beyond that, I have some relatively mild physical preferences. A well-sculpted ass is a wonder to behold. But I've been turned on by male asses ranging from the barely-there to way-more-than-a-handful. And that continues across the board. I've been turned on by all sorts of different-looking guys, from all over the spectrum. And because of that, I've never felt that I was unattractive to absolutely everybody. Yeah, if I were younger/thinner/whatever-er, I'd be attractive to more people. But I've never wanted for guys that found me attractive - simply because there are a ton of guys out there, and I'm comfortable enough with myself that it allows some of them to find me attractive.

I met a guy online once who was really down on his looks. He lived a solitary existence, and had never dated (let alone slept with) another guy. He always talked about how unattractive he was, and (especially) how small his dick was. But I thought he looked just fine. No, he wasn't my default fantasy type or anything, but I totally would've gone to bed with him. (His dick WAS a bit smaller than average, but come on - you could say that about exactly half of the male population. ) And in fact, I TOLD him that. "I would totally go to be with you. If you want me to, I'll come visit you and have sex with you." And his response was "...no, you're just saying that." And that was really sad. He had built his little "I'm un-fuck-able" castle and refused to come out of it.

Lex

[Bhp91126]

I used to hate my body. Not because I thought I was unattractive, but because it was so prone to painful breakdowns. My 20s and 30s I spent cursing my lower back, my teeth, my sinuses and my ears because if one thing healed something else would painfully break, needing antibiotics, rest, pain-meds, tons of ice cream and chocolate.

I now have learned to take care of my body, watch out for my lower back, do core-excercises, the mild Florida climate and a nose surgery took care of most sinus and mid-ear infections, my dental care has improved greatly.

[Loky]

I used to hate my nose before I've found out that i have nasal septum deviation ,now i appreciate it as it is . Also I don't know if it counts but I was really insecure about my body hair but now i love it

[araya]

my ass, they're unusually big! I'd love to flatten it out a little