“Self-Esteem, meet Cankles.Cankles, meet my Self-Esteem.” So, in web-surfing I found this report legitimizing the term ‘cankles.We’ve heard this term in many ‘yo mama’ jokes of my past, but it’s recently caught the attention of one of our friends down at CNN and is currently one of the most viewed stories on their site.

What are cankles? Imagine if from the knee down, your leg looked like a solid tree stump with a foot attached at the bottom. Where traditionally the leg would slim and curve down past the calf to the ankle and lead to the foot, people with ‘cankles’ either have swelling or possibly fat that engulfs their ankles.

The thing that gets me is that there’s nothing new about cankles, but the way the article presents it is almost as an offering to the torn self-image of the masses of Americans that are already obsessing about muffin top, or love handles as the article also mentions. They even open the story with a tragic case, some poor woman with cankles too embarrassed to tell the world about her ugly little secret.

The concept is ridiculous, yet enticing, on one hand I can comfortably say that I don’t have cankles and am therefore that much closer to being perfect, but I do have love handles so there’s more work to be done.

Long story short, I’ve written before about my post-high school body and new set of esteem issues that came with it. I didn’t start noticing I put on weight until I would encounter people I went to school with and hadn’t seen in a while and receive such comments as, “damn you got big, you had kids?” or my personal favorite just a simple “you gained weight.” And believe me, I’m hardly fat I guess I never realized how slim I used to be.
It’s almost funny watching yourself go from perfectly secure and indifferent, to others perceptions of you to an obsessive “do I look fat?” girl. Perfect example, I’m preparing for a trip to Miami in a few weeks and while looking for a swimsuit I’m mindful that it has to be sexy but definitely can’t show too much back (love handles) or stomach (partial muffin top) but at least I don’t have cankles or cellulite so I guess things could be worse.

This way of thinking, of constant self-critique and comparison of what’s wrong with you vs. finding comfort in pointing out what is wrong with the next person is the most ungratifying attempt at confidence. I think even the most beautiful people are flawed if they only base their attractive qualities on how better they are compared to the next person, it’s cliché as hell but at the end of the day it’s your inner beauty that shines through your cankles, your crooked teeth or whatever perceived flaw you have; and as long as you are at peace with it eff what CNN has to say about it.