In making the announcement Sunday, Pelosi, (D-Calif.) and Schumer, (D-N.Y.) said the proceedings honoring Chief Warrant Officer 4 Williams will take place after consulting with his family and Congress returns from the July recess. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced the body of Medal of Honor recipient Herschel Woodrow “Woody” Williams will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. So, let’s take a stand and celebrate all bodies, and leave adjectives like “brave” out of the picture.Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams, poses for a photo before the start of a Sunset Parade at the Marine Corps War Memorial, Arlington, a., Sept. It is wonderful when women of all shapes and sizes don’t let society’s opinions dictate their sartorial choices - but it would be even more wonderful if we got to a point where it was normal (. or that society didn’t dictate our self confidence at all). Normalizing diverse representation of all kinds remains as important as ever, and the only way we can achieve that is precisely by treating diversity as if it’s normal. All of us are beautiful in our own right, and to frame that beauty within a specific context is to cheapen it. But by calling her brave, we diminish that. Yes, her picture (and its accompanying caption) is ridiculously inspiring, and photos like hers allow other women the much-needed reassurance that all bodies are amazing and worthy of love. Kane looks absolutely stunning in her photo - but more importantly, she looks confident and happy.

Calling a woman “brave” for showing her body implies that her existence is somehow less admirable for not adhering to (or caring about) a very narrow standard of beauty. All women, regardless of their weight (or any other factor), should be allowed to wear whatever they please. All too often, the reaction to women who don’t adhere to society’s definition of the “perfect body” is that they are being brave when they choose to show it - but we need to challenge that notion. “Your happiness will suffer in exchange to make someone else more comfortable with THEIR own issues.” “What if we let the critics in our head win?” Kane wrote in a follow-up blog post.

Brave williams body