XOJane Real Girl Belly Project Shows Women's Non-Photoshopped Abs

How often do women think positive thoughts about their bellies -- or thighs or cheeks or breasts or arms? Not very often.

But Emily McCombs at XOJane is doing her part to change that with her "Real Girl Belly Project." McCombs recently put out a call for women to send un-photoshopped pictures of their bellies to post on the site. Even better, those submitting were asked to include a few words about what they like or appreciate about that area of their bodies.

The result is a collection of 75 photos of 75 different women's bellies and, in many cases, their stories. The variety underscores how crazy it is that all models are required to have the same flat, blank abs -- no stories there -- and that anyone suggests the rest of us should, too.

Visit XOJane to see all 75 amazing midriffs, but here's a preview:

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Comments

[Daniel Adam]

10:15 PM on 01/28/2012

i understand if you don't have perfectly toned and tanned stomach, but cmon, some of these people are clearly overweight and should exercise/eat better if they don't want health problems down the road.

[Charles Mwaura]

08:36 PM on 01/28/2012

I used to have big problems with stomach fat, but am getting in better shape now. Here's a good site I found that really helped. It gave me great workouts and diet tips and showed me what I was doing wrong before...there's even lots of free articles on the site..
http://nutrisculpt.com/

[Khannea Suntzu]

02:04 PM on 01/28/2012

Sorry. Then no relationshop with any of those women. I guess it's living alone for me. I had never had a relationship (or sex) with a guy or woman who would have a belly like that. I suppose these are american bellies?

I am sorry but I have been damaged so much by what's inside my mind and imagination that reality just doesn't live up any more. It condems me to being alone. I don't want to subject someone nice to me feeling revulsion.

[Danii]

10:24 AM on 01/28/2012

Love the post. These are indeed *real* women. With all celebrities that starve and live in the gym, you tend to forget what normal people look like.

[www.get-thin.co.uk]

[Silma]

11:26 AM on 01/03/2012

I, really admired the courage of ALL the women that sent their pictures !!! A lot of people believed that a big belly is just result of wrong food, laziness, etc. Nothing farther away of the reality. I, workout, ate extremely healthy and in the last year my belly looked liked a " muffin ", no matter what I do. I, know that is typical as you age. Even when I am a high self confident with a lot of other attributes lady it bother me; as I knew happened to most women. Not that I pretended to look liked a VS model. You had to age with grace. But, need to recognized that I am seriously considering a tummy tuck. Unfortunately, not everybody can afforded and in today society 98% give to physical looks priority over qualities. Sad, but true.

[Jackie Keane]

10:24 PM on 01/02/2012

some foods for the new year that might help with overall health and adding more nutrients to our diets which translates to outer beauty.
http://www.exerciseforlifeandwellness.com/blog/2012/1/2/whats-in-jackie-keanes-fridge.html

[AndiBean]

08:55 PM on 01/02/2012

Doesn't anyone remember Amanda Palmer's "ReBELLYon" back in 2008? Same exact thing as she's doing here three years later. This, however, was decidedly less flattering. Blah.

[Brian Brooks]

11:52 AM on 01/01/2012

I'll go with 5

[MissZ1330]

12:55 AM on 01/02/2012

somehow this makes me want to work harder for beauty i dont see beauty in this and cant say i will blame society blame media and blame magazines its there and its gonna be there with the same mindset and values thatll well just in the end pass on to our children. the funny thing is one day society will say "fat is in!" next thing you'll know well be posting pictures of skinny women shouting"this is a real woman's body, I blame media etc etc...." what will we do then? its human nature to rebel just as its human nature for wanting to belong to what we find comfortable and safe. whichever we pick all we can do is sit back and quietly observe instead of patronizing those who didnt follow your choice

[Alan Emkay]

11:28 AM on 12/21/2011

Awesome! cool project :)

[mosier2002]

10:05 PM on 12/17/2011

Who are we kidding? Most of the stomachs there looked awful. Where is our society going when instead of teaching people to love themselves as they really are, we try to tell them that they are PHYSICALLY beautiful no matter what. That is a fallacy. True self-respect and love says, "I know the truth about myself. I am not the most handsome or beautiful person out there but that doesn't matter. What matters is on the inside." Some people have been gifted with good looks or brains or a great sense of humor and some of us haven't. We are valuable not because of what we possess but because we are human persons who were created to love and be loved.

We need to get rid of this notion that we are all physically beautiful no matter how unattractive we are, and realize that ultimately it doesn't matter how beautiful or ugly we are, what matters is how much we love and are loved for who we are, not for our bodies.

[imdesign]

04:51 PM on 12/12/2011

Like all men, all women have the potential to be who they are In-Truth. Some have found their voice and live it and they will knowingly or unknowingly inspire others to seek it within as well.

Beautiful women in expression of self.

[Missprincy Princy]

02:24 AM on 12/12/2011

nice post By the by, as long as the discussion focuses on how women's bellies look, the discussion remains superficia­l....and relatively unproducti­ve.

The key question: How do we women cultivate the power concentrat­ed *inside* our bellies, and how do we direct this body-cente­red power to promote creation for healing ourselves, our communitie­s, our world? http://www.onlinemoviepoint.com I could see one that may of been a mother.I have had c section,2 kids, and back surgery where they went in from the front, and my tummy is flat with of course incision scars, but they did a good job stitching. It is hard to maintain bc they cut muscles so i have to work extra hard. these women have been too complacent and lazy it seems. Except for the ones with stretch marks that is hereditary­, thank god i dodged that bullet!!

[FlowerGypsy]

07:58 PM on 12/10/2011

Wow! This is awesome! I stare at photos of models all day long and I've learned to hate myself so much for being "flawed" when I'm not even given the resources every day to realize that we are all HUMANS and are lovely just the way we are.

[babybuda]

11:19 PM on 12/09/2011

7 out of seven billion hardly representative!

[Spram]

05:47 PM on 12/09/2011

Let's reverse this:

I have Social Anxiety and I'm very very "shy".

I expect women to find me attractive because I'm real and not all men can have the confidence, fame and money of a movie or rock star.

Life is unfair, not everyone can be beautiful.