Body Image - A Controversial Topic



Body Image.  This is a very controversial topic.  It's about how others see us.  It's about how we see ourselves.  It's about what people believe is "socially acceptable."  It's about the stereotypes that come with the body shapes and sizes.  It's about biases.  

I know that I am guilty of this.  I can't think of much that bothers me more than when a skinny person (Size 3 or below), complains to me about their weight.  Seriously???  You are talking to an overweight person, and you are complaining about how fat you are?  Maybe that person does actually see themselves that way, but I can't imagine that they don't know that they are not fat.  I do know that they are definitely not thinking of how bad they are making an overweight person feel.  Sometimes, my thoughts are just not nice, but I don't say what I'm thinking.  (I'm never mean to anyone.)  I do not think this way of all skinny people, but when a skinny person complains to me about how fat they are, I call them names in my mind.  I refer to these people as "skinny bitches."  (So, now you know that I don't always have the nicest of thoughts, but I am, only human!  I hope that you don't think I am a horrible person, now.)  Yes, I have a bias, and I know that others do, also.  Maybe the bias is about fat people, maybe skinny people, maybe about people who live at the gym.  Most people have biases.  I have just confessed mine.  I know that my bias comes from the skinny person, making me feel worse about my own weight.

We were all brought up with the Barbie Doll image.  You were supposed to be skinny, and fit, and "perfect."  Anything less wasn't socially acceptable.  We see the models, and the actors, and we think how perfect they look.  We try all kinds of crazy things to look like them.  We buy the products they advertise, hoping to look younger, and have perfect skin.  We have probably all tried a crazy diet at one time or another, because we want to look like the "perfect people."  Most of us don't think about the fact that most photos of models are photo-shopped.  Actors have makeup artists that can make a 90 year old person look 16, or a 16 year old person look 90.  They are trained to hide any flaws.  Actors have body-doubles that are used when the director doesn't think their body is perfect enough for the shot!  They are not perfect!

Are we sure of how others see us, or do we see ourselves the way that we think others see us?  Most of us were not raised to love ourselves, although we should have been!  We have to love ourselves, and not think of what society thinks as socially acceptable.  We have to work to become the best people that we can be - inside and out!  We have to remember that nobody is perfect, not even the people that look perfect in magazines and on TV. 

Always remember – YOU ARE AMAZING!  Go out and make it a great day!

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