Back in January the topic was 'body image' and I felt compelled to write something about this because I have quite a strong opinion on this issue and it affects so many people. I know my writing style isn't very professional or journalistic so I wasn't surprised when my entry wasn't picked. However, I still think it's an important message to spread so I'm going to share it with you here.
[Disclaimer: I talk about female body image here, this does not mean I'm saying that men don't face similar problems, because they do.]
Girl body image is complex, frustrating and baffling. Everybody worries about the way they look, and if you disagree and say that you’re completely happy with your appearance then I’ll tell you that you are lying. To make ourselves feel better we’re told to be comfortable in our own skin and that appearance doesn’t matter and it’s what’s on the inside that counts. However, that’s not true is it? At least not for women. Society places an unhealthy amount of importance on aesthetic and no matter how much you dye your hair, do your make-up or dress differently at the bottom of it all a person cannot change how they look. So why do we measure a person’s worth by something we are born with and can’t alter?
It’s no wonder that women, at all ages, feel pressurised
to look a certain way. I feel like I’m lucky in a sense being a petite size 8
with large boobs, however, there are other parts of me that are ‘wrong’, which
to me says that if I want to be a T.V presenter or in the public eye in any way
shape or form I’d need to be a lot taller, in fact I’d actually need smaller
boobs and skinnier legs would definitely boost my chances of success.
Naomi
Wolf’s ‘Beauty Myth’ still exists and makes women critique themselves so
harshly because they believe they don’t fit the mould that society has deemed
‘beautiful’. There needs to be ways to help women who punish themselves for not
looking how they believe they should. One way would be to represent more ‘real’
women in the media. However, we can say with a lot of confidence that it’s very
unlikely. How successful do you think The X Factor would be with two short,
size 14 women with un-plucked eyebrows sitting on the judges’ panel?
I'd love to get a discussion going so please let me know what you think in the comments. Is the media distorting our perception of 'beauty'? And let's not just keep the debate focused on women, we should open it up to the effects of the media on men's body image too.
Hannah
