The Gender Equity Center celebrated its annual “Love My Body” Day celebration outside of the USU on Thursday Oct. 21.

Fierce body-positive music, such as “Formation” by Beyonce, filled Cesar Chavez Plaza as all attendees were invited to strut down the catwalk. In accordance with the event’s mission, the crowd applauded and hyped each and every participant.

It was not required to strut, however, those who did gave a diverse show of confidence. Many took the opportunity to brighten the stage with their aura, fashionable sense of style and modeling skills. Each participant, even the shyest added to the theme of being comfortable in your own skin.

“The purpose of “Love Your Body” Day is to uplift and appreciate all body types. LYBD also helps our campus challenge the way society views bodies of different shapes, genders, and more.

By having this event we hope that students felt empowered and beautiful within their own bodies, “said Karla Guerrero Aguilar, a peer advisor for the Gender Equity Center.

The Gender Equity center was accompanied by other USU tenants such as ASI, the Latinx Center and the Cross Cultural Center, the Health Center and by a few sororities. Each program had a table set up to offer their resources as well as a body positive activity for attendees to participate in.

Two comfy themed gift baskets were raffled to participants, each was equipped with items based on stay at home treatments. They included snacks, Target giftcards and blankets for a wonderful stay-at-home day.

“It was really nice to see people come by and really embrace the event! We had a lot of different orgs there too, so it was awesome that we were all spreading positivity and self love/acceptance. We also had some staff participate which was awesome to see. It felt like we had a bit of normalcy back,” said Marissa Espinoza.

“Love Your Body” Day conveniently was scheduled the day after International Pronouns day, allowing the event to also advocate for the use of pronouns. Everyone was encouraged to ask for pronouns when meeting a new person at the event. In addition, it was made known that pronoun pins are available in the Gender Equity Center.

“Body positivity to me means that everyone deserves to feel beautiful in their own body. It doesn’t matter what our society tells us about beauty and health. Everyone deserves to feel confident in the body they have” said Guerrero Aguilar.

The Gender Equity Center was established in April of 2006, formerly located in the Foundation Classroom Building. It was originally named the Women’s Center, however in 2014 they rebranded to their current title to fully support all pronouns on campus.

The Gender Equity Center is located in USU 3200. It is open every Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Their next event is “Women of Color and Environmental Justice” being held on Nov. 4 virtually through Zoom. Learn more about this event and more at www.csusm.edu/gec/index.html.