Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Body Image

People are becoming more and more obsessed these days with how they look and how people look at them. Why are people not happy with the way they are? They always want to be different. Society is putting so much pressure on people, especially females, to be skinny. This pressure is now coming at younger and younger ages. We see images on TV and in magazine which are unrealistic to most people. Many of those images are not even real. They have been digitally altered. However, young girls do not know this. They just want to become like those images and will try their hardest to accomplish this goal. Some of these girls even take this to unhealthy measures which only turns out badly in the long run.

The other night, my hall sponsored an event where we got free pizza for dinner. While we were eating, we had a chance to talk to the people around us. One of these conversations really bothered me. It came from a guy across the table. He was talking about how he viewed women and was saying that they should never weigh over 150 pounds. He then went on to say that his daughters better never weigh more than 140! He was going to force them to work out all the time, so he wouldn't have fat girls. The guys around him tried to tell him that he was being rude. They asked him if it was okay for them to weigh more if they were really muscular since they would be at the gym a lot. He countered this saying that he had seen some pretty "ripped" girls before which only weighed 125, so they would have no excuse to be much more than that.

This is just one example of something that causes people to have a negative body image of themselves. Everyone has a different body build. While 140 may be overweight for some, it could be unhealthy for others. A healthy body is so much more than a number on the scales, but when others are always pointing out your flaws, it is hard to stay positive. You want to listen to what they are saying even though it can be hurtful. It also harms your self esteem. You question why you are the way you are and even start to put yourself down. Instead, you should try complimenting yourself and those you come into contact with each day. Not only will you be building your self esteem, but it will also benefit those around you. Maybe they would even catch on and join in on the kindness. I mean, who wouldn't want to help spread positive messages. In increasing your self esteem, you will also improve your body image.

Do you think that a California girl is supposed to have curls and wear a jean size 3?
All the curves in all the right places, spray tanned faces just like on TV?
And we read in the gospel of Vogue that we're all suppose to dress and move and be
Visions of perfection
Such a misconception
'Cause the real connection is deeper than the eye can see.

As I was writing this, these words from Mandisa's True Beauty came on my iPod, and the lyrics caught my attention. They made me stop and listen since they went so well with what I was doing. In this song, she talks about how the world has all these expectations for the way we should look and act. This is not what is important though. We need to worry about our true beauty. In time, our looks will fade, but who we are will stick with us. The guy from the above story needs to be more worried about the way he raises his daughters rather than if they meet his pound expectations or not. A beautiful personality will allow your outward appearance to shine. Would you rather be remembered for your body or your character?

3 comments:

swim guy said...

This is oh so true. The media does a great job of molding people's, especially young people's, minds. A majority, if not all, of the population has things about their body that they would like to change.

I like how you incororated the song into your blog. I think it's great theat you were taking in your surroundings while writing this entry. It just emphasizes the point that the pressure to be whatever, is all around us.

Sally Sue said...

I actually did a paper first semester on the body image the media displays, its sad to think that people believe that it is healthy to look like that. Some men also see these and begin to think that his friends that are girls, should look like that.

I find it disturbing to hear that the kid on your floor said that. For an example, half of my teammates are over 6 foot, they would be unhealthy if they were to weigh under 150 lbs. It really doesn't matter the number on the scale, because I agree, everyones body type is different.

The Infamous Ska said...

The media has completely changed the world. Not only is there this body image problem but there is increasing sexuality, violence, and drug abuse. As these things increase in display time, more problems seem to arise.

People are now having a hard time realizing what is real and what is fake. With this wavering sense of reality people are doing these things because they think it is what the world expects of them. People need to learn to except who they are and realize everything on the TV is not real or how you should live your life.