Today’s society puts a lot of pressure on young girls to be perfect; perfect hair, perfect body and perfect face. The question is what is really perfect, and why are we so obsessed with perfection when our flaws make us unique?
Through centuries, time after time women have been objectified and made to obsess over their looks even if they didn’t at first. When everyone around you is worried about what size their jeans are it’s hard not to do the same yourself. This sets the ball rolling for competition between women which is the worst kind of competition as young women should build each other up instead of tearing each other to shreds over who fits society’s ‘idea’ of perfection.
There is a clear cut division in our world, a division that has been made even more prominent through social media, the division between ‘plus size’ and ‘normal’ girls. Actresses, Youtubers, models are all put into categories based on whether they are plus size or size zero. Why does this exist? Why does fat shaming and skinny shaming have to be a thing women have to worry about? Both of these terms have such negative connotations; however, they are used again and again in the media, and reinforced into a girl’s mind that no matter what her size is or how good she feels in her own skin, she can never accept herself for who she is. For someone, she will be too skinny and for another someone, too fat. Actresses like Melissa McCarthy, Youtuber Loey Bug, model Tess Holiday – why are they known? Likely because of their plus size status. Why can’t they just be known for what they represent, or who they are as a person? Why is their body the main focal point that makes them unique? However, many body types are starting to be represented in the media nowadays, which is a step in the right direction towards body positivity.
All these words used to describe a women’s perfection or her lack of only hold so much power over us because we let them. If all of us could just see people as who they are instead of how they look, these words would be meaningless. Another aspect of our world today that fuels body shaming is the idea of “one size fits all”. The poster child for today’s generation- Brandy Melville, the brand that claims its clothes fit all body types doesn’t take into account that one size really does not fit all; it can’t. It just can’t. All of this leads to women feeling hurt when they are made to believe that this piece of clothing that is marketed for all body types doesn’t quite fit theirs, seeing it as a sign that there is something wrong with their body.
Body shaming is also emphasized through magazines and the media again and again. The same tag lines are plastered all over: how to have the perfect body, tips and tricks on how to achieve the so called bikini body, etc. When young girls see these headlines all around them, this idea of what is considered beautiful is reinforced in their minds, judging themselves to be always lacking in something or the other. This starts a never-ending cycle of women who measure themselves to society’s insane standards of beauty. Often, we fail to protect young, vulnerable girls from this conceived idea, and from an early age they may develop insecurities that never really go away as ‘perfect’ women are all around us in the media.
However, many body positivity movements have come into play recently, in order to change the common mindset that you have to be a certain way to be beautiful. Women come in all shapes and sizes, and they should all be celebrated as long as they are happy and healthy. Neither skinny nor fat is ugly; we need to erase this concept from our world. Not too long ago, Dove released a campaign titled “Real Beauty”. It included women of all sizes in order to show that standards of beauty can’t be fit into a clear cut category. The women of today should have the freedom to be comfortable in their bodies and not always feel like they need to be perfect, as perfection does not exist. It never will. Perfection is boring. We should strive to be different and be proud of our bodies regardless of the size of our jeans; it makes us who we are. To conclude, despite how naïve it may sound, I hope future women will worry more about who they are on the inside than about perfecting their outer appearances.
Images obtained from:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/chelseac16/22-body-positive-messages-that-every-…
http://girltalkhq.com/brands-promoting-body-diversity-response-victorias…
http://bodycourage.com/2015/04/10/an-open-letter-to-doves-choosebeautifu…