...they go to a set of scales and are weighed.

Look at these happy women reclaiming the scale to measure things like joy, and love, and courage. The problem? These are both commercials put out by diet food brands, products that make their money off of a society that tells women that their worth is measured by a bathroom scale. 

In Her Naked Skin one of the most visceral images for me is the women lining up to be weighed as they head into prison. Scared of public backlash should anything happen to these women, the prison system is carefully recording their weight to make sure that these women weigh just as much when they leave as when they arrived, by any means necessary. 

Her Naked Skin is ultimately about female bodies and the ways they are viewed, weighed, measured, controlled, and degraded. These are problems that women face every day, and the scale is a tool of that oppression. Don't believe me? Check out these bathroom scale advertisements and the way they talk about their use. 

And don't think it's about health, because the desired weight shifts with beauty standards and weight doesn't actually tell you that much about how healthy you are. Does obesity put you at risk for other problems? Absolutely. Does the number on the scale tell you anything about your current state of health? Nope. 

As someone who has really struggled with my relationship with my weight and the scale, I find the very concept of a scale absolutely revolting. But I have to remember that there's another important and feminine scale. 

As women, let's release our unhealthy relationship with the bathroom scale, and pick up the scales of justice. Because, let me tell you, one creates oppression, and the other fights it.