Carte blanche to Mariana Mazza | Our beloved bodies

With their unique pen and their own sensitivity, artists present their vision of the world around us. This week, we give carte blanche to the comedian Mariana Mazza.

I write these sentences, sitting, almost perched, on the heights of the land of Riomaggiore.

I am privileged to travel with people who love me and, let’s say it, support me. Not in my projects, I’m talking. In my person. I am not always liveable. I am moody, I criticize everything and I always want to be right. But I am learning to improve myself. This is not the purpose of the paper.

I am privileged to be able to travel. First of all. To have friends who can travel. Also. And to have a platform. When we travel and disconnect, it seems as if the constant fog of everyday life that colors our brains slowly dissipates. Rest, wonder, being far away contribute to this calm that is created in our heads. We come back not physically rested, but mentally. There is a reset that happens naturally. And we come up with thoughts like the one I published on social networks:

There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about the appearance of my body. Of my cocoon. Of my outer shell.

One day I observe him briefly. One day I am obsessed. One day I celebrate him. One day I mourn him.

I learned to tame it. To accept it. Above all, to understand it. It is what has followed me the longest. It is the thing I know the most.

I have a healthy relationship with him. Sometimes abusive. Sometimes tormented. But more often than not, it is sweet. Because he lives in me.

People think I’m so confident all the time. But I’m not. I’m human. Unstable. Creepingly vulnerable.

I like to show it off, this body. Not to be applauded. Nor to be liked.

I like to expose it to normalize it. To prove to him that he has his place in this complex, troubling, too often criticized universe.

I like to show him with his chest out. Not for looks. To exist better. Without hitting myself on the head. Damn. We’re all going to die.

I never pretended to say that he is incredible. But he is healthy (at least, I do everything for that). He moves. He camouflages himself. He exposes himself strongly.

Some days he annoys me. Other days he looks at me with his mischievous look.

Even if it resonates too loudly sometimes. It’s the one that was lent to me for my years of life. I have a limited contract with it. And one day, it will be buried with all the others. It will end up in the same place. But for now, it exists.

Happy summer to all those who will exhibit it. Proudly. Not always easy. But go. The weather is nice. We have a passage. Fuck the jealous.

Xxxx

P.S. – If this status makes you feel good, I’m glad. If it confronts you and makes you want to say hurtful things, give yourself a hug. It will pass.

The text is accompanied by a photo of me naked, from behind, where you can see the delicious curve of my buttocks as the daughter of immigrants.

Following this message, I received many touching, heartbreaking and motivating testimonies.

Many said to themselves: “We are not alone.”

I wanted to put words to an emotion that had been following me for too long. An emotion that, without rest and perspective, would have come out negatively. And I had the feeling of being able to help someone who was asking themselves the same questions as me. Who was experiencing the same daily negativity of the way people look at themselves. And reading the comments, it seems to have worked very well.

We humans tend to justify our presence on Earth by saying that we don’t change other people’s lives. That we’re not that important. That our opinions and voices aren’t that strong compared to others.

And to that I say: stop.

The doctor who treats you for your cancer is as important as the hairdresser who does your highlights while listening to you talk about your relationship that is not doing well. As much as the doctor is necessary for survival, a comedy show can help make a depressed person laugh.

Every moment can be decisive in someone’s life. Every word. Every gesture. Every smile can change the course of a day.

We can all, when we feel that our energy bottle is full, change the course of things.

I didn’t pretend to do so with my publication, but I know, in fact I am convinced, that there is at least one person who must have read this text and said to themselves that they were no longer alone. That they had an ally. A balm.

Let us be the balm of humanity.

Let us be, when we have the energy, gentleness in the lives of others.

If you think about it, smile as you walk. Wish a stranger you pass a good day. Be the change you wish for others.

On that note, I repeat, be gentle with yourself. Summer is beautiful and challenging.

Celebrate your being.

And above all, WE DON’T CARE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE LOOK LIKE.