[Everyone’s got a vice, a bad habit, something they know they need to change. Unfortunately, everyone also has a million excuses why they just can’t do it. Not anymore. Every month we will be following a different CollegeCandy writer as she takes on a personal challenge. Last month Tiffany spent a month at Outward Bound and challenged her physical limits. This month, Ashley's going to try to stop hating on her body so much. Can she do it!? Could you?]

As everyone knows, college is the time that most of our bodies go through changes. Some of us develop our feminine curves because that puberty thing didn’t happen when they said it would (hooray for boobs and hips!), some of us gain the “freshman fifteen”,  and those special others get active and involved and get the best bods they’ve ever had. Of course there are those who remain more or less the same, but that wasn’t the case for me. I fell into all three categories — my hips widened, my boobs got bigger, I gained the sophomore sixteen, and I eventually got motivated to get to the gym and get in the best shape I’ve ever been in. Somehow I went through all of these changes and I still find myself hatin’ on my body. It recently dawned on me that all the negative comments I have to say about my body don’t reflect the way I really feel about it. I do love my body, now more than ever, I’ve just developed a really bad habit of putting myself down when it comes to my figure.

Now I’m not going to lie, I’m a fairly picky and particular person who more or less has something to say about everything (yeah, I’m that girl…but I swear I don’t ACTUALLY comment on everything), but this habit goes beyond that part of my personality. As unhealthy as it is, I put myself through some sort of mean-girl-high-school-hell  for absolutely no reason! I could blame this habit on “the media” or the socialization of girls but pointing the finger at society when I’m well aware of what I’ve been doing to myself won’t get me anywhere. I’m all for critically analyzing why we do the things we do and what influences us to be the way we are (GWS major here), but I’m more for personal responsibility. Now that I’ve noticed just how unhealthy and negative the comments I make about my body are, it is up to me to change them. I am determined to shake this awful habit!

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Christie Brinkley, who’s currently going through a very public divorce from her cheating, porn-obsessed husband Peter Cook, recently told People that she “feels bad” for the 21-year-old girl Cook had an affair with, and “forgive[s] her completely.”

The reason this is noteworthy? Because women have a tendency to blame the chick their significant other had an affair with, rather than the significant other themselves. How many of you (and I’m sorry, by the way, if you understand what I’m talking about) have felt the burn of a cheater, only to turn around and have homicidal thoughts about the person the love of your life cheated on you with? I’ll cut that bitch, you think, while tearfully trying to figure out how to convince your cheating bf or spouse back into your life.

I’m sure there’s lot of scientific evidence as to why women usually hate on the O.W (Other Woman) more than their partner, but in my opinion, it all filters down to female competitiveness and self-loathing masked by rage. Like the gossip mags (mostly read by women) that spend pages ragging on celebrity cellulite and sagging stomaches, most of us find it easier to go after a target we don’t know, rather than A) a person we do know, or B) ourselves. Read More »