CONFIDENCE GAME

“ONCE YOU’RE IN A RELATIONSHIP, YOUR INSECURITIES BECOME VERY ATTRACTIVE”

I’VE ALWAYS BEEN a fount of body negativity in my relationships. I’ve fretted to my boyfriends about my Clydesdale legs, the bald peninsula on one side of my head, and my “old lady hands”, among many, many other things. For a long time, the men I dated seemed like unshakable pillars of confidence; they appeared to have limitless patience for my insecurities while being totally immune to their own. I remember one boyfriend, at uni, climbing out of my extra-long twin bed and doing some incredibly unself-conscious nude stretches in the morning light. I was awed by the confidence of that.

But now, as men dip a toe in the body-positivity movement, I’ve realised that my