The ideal woman — what is she like?

"We. Women" is a photo project by Lithuanian photographer Neringa Rekašiute about real female beauty.

While still a student, Neringa began studying the problem of the image of the female body in the media and came to the conclusion that they are constantly trying to impose a standardized ideal of female beauty on us. But is there an ideal beauty? Neringa believes that in the media, the female body is portrayed as an object of sexual desire, the image of a woman is focused only on her appearance, and not on her personality. According to Neringa, all this has a direct negative impact on society, as a result of which most women are dissatisfied with their bodies and because of this they have various problems, including psychological ones. The ideal woman — what is she like?

Three women - photographer Neringa Rekashute, Lithuanian actress and TV presenter Beata Tishkevich, as well as PR specialist Modesta Kairite - decided to protest against the distorted image of women in the media and created a social project called "We.Women".

The goal of this project is to inspire women to accept and love their own body. As the creators of the project explained, first women must understand what they really are, and then accept their body with all the "internal and external scars."

Twelve brave women agreed to participate in the project "We. Women". They decided not only to open up to the world and tell their stories, but also to appear in front of the camera in their underwear.

Each of the participants of the project had their own painful experiences because of the appearance. However, as with most women who are shy of their body, because it is either too fat, or too thin, etc.

Most of the twelve women who took part in the photo shoot actually had much bigger problems than just dissatisfaction with their bodies. One of them suffered from anorexia, another from bulimia, and the third from albinism. Some of the women were struggling with severe depression. And one of the participants was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"This project showed us what deep "scars" women carry in our society," says Neringa.

Women who try to keep up with the standards imposed by the media and at the same time accepted by society live under constant pressure: after all, they always have to look perfect.

The relentless pursuit of an ideal appearance leads to the fact that women are constantly dissatisfied with their bodies, as a result of which their self-esteem decreases. That is why it is so important to talk about these problems and show real women's bodies - so the authors of the project "We. Women".

"Magazines show us perfect women all the time. In fact, these are just one-dimensional photos that have been corrected using Photoshop," Modesta says. "Our stories, scars and bodies are also perfect because they are real."

Beata Tishkevich stressed that "we are not only our body, the body is just a form for what is inside us."

After Beata posted a description of the project "We. Women" in her Facebook profile, thousands of women from all over Lithuania started writing to her.

Beata read all their stories and chose 12 women whom she invited to participate in the "We.Women" project.

"This project has become a cleansing for its participants and an inspiration for all of us. We still communicate, support and advise each other. We feel that there is a strong bond between us," Neringa says.