Body positivity is a must in an image saturated world
With a media that is largely image centric and driven by sex, our society and our perception of beauty standards have been dramatically altered and diluted. Body shaming is an issue that many people view as just a normal fact of life, but it only arises from a media that glorifies only certain body types and makes a mockery of body types that are viewed as undesirable.
Body positivity is a must in an image saturated world
With a media that is largely image centric and driven by sex, our society and our perception of beauty standards have been dramatically altered and diluted. Body shaming is an issue that many people view as just a normal fact of life, but it only arises from a media that glorifies only certain body types and makes a mockery of body types that are viewed as undesirable.
Many people over simplify this issue by labeling it “fat shaming,” but the roots of the problem permeate far deeper than simply discrimination against obese individuals. It goes to the point that even healthy individuals fitting well within their BMI index can feel that they are undesirable because of their size to.
There are many factors that have led to this societal mentality that true happiness can only be experienced by the most beautiful individuals. Arguably one of the main contributors to this issue is the Barbie doll. The Barbie doll’s warped proportions and unrealistic elements of beauty have largely swayed the public’s expectations of what shape women should strive for. Many families have decided to be a barbie free household in order to encourage their kids to learn to love their bodies from a young age.
Other factors have influenced us as well, like the way advertisements use hypersexualized women in order to sell their products. These have also led to the way that women are simultaneously oversexualized, yet expected to meet certain criteria of beauty in order to be desired.
And this experience is not only limited to women. Men also feel the harsh standards of male beauty and masculinity. The pressure to be muscular and lean and gym oriented is very strong and creates a sense that only individuals who are strong are to be desired.
Many of these expectations are put onto children at very young ages, and the preconceptions
they make early on in life can often times follow them into adulthood. And this isn’t an issue that has a simple easy fix, it takes a long time for people to change the way they view themselves and undo years of toxic expectations placed on themselves.
All of this goes to show the importance of body positivity. If people are trying to lose weight and get healthy, it should because of their decision to create a healthier lifestyle for themselves and not to fit some imaginary standard of beauty. The body that you feel the most comfortable and yourself in is the body that you should be able to have free from ridicule.
