Because I'm feeling lazy, I've decided to get a little off-topic with my blog. Considering we've had little-to-no guidance and zero feedback on our other posts, I believe I deserve to pick a non-English-related topic this time. Here are my thoughts on body image:
Ninety-one percent of women surveyed on a college campus had attempted to control their weight through dieting at some point in their life. Along with the culture shock of leaving home, many college freshmen are afraid of the "freshman fifteen", a weight gain caused by unhealthy eating and lifestyle choices in their first year. What's so terrifying about a little extra weight? More than half of that ninety-one percent would not be pushed over the line of healthy American vs. obese American if she gained fifteen pounds. A little extra weight is threatening because our world is never too slow to remind us that we could always weigh a little bit less.
The pressure to be thin is placed on children from a very young age. Obesity is an issue in America, and it needs to be prevented and rectified; however, at some point, the pressure becomes too much for impressionable children to handle. Preteens fast for days or weeks, making dieting a social trend. Most people who have been through the seventh grade have experienced the influence friends can have on their body image and how they feel about themselves. You can only remind your friends that they're "not fat" about twenty times before you begin to think that you are just as "fat" as they are.
But here's my message: look past it.
Stop caring what everyone else thinks. The social trend should be to love your body, no matter what size, shape, color, or gender you are. No one is ever going to be exactly the same, and that's okay. Accepting that you are the way you are will allow you to gain a confidence and a mindset that you have never had before (take this from personal experience). Stop telling yourself that you love celery and running if you don't love celery and running. Be proud of the fact that you love ice cream, and that's why your don't fit into your friends' clothes. You are not your friends.
First, I want to say that this comment reminds me of a scene from Mean Girls in which the girls are looking into the mirror and complaining about various parts of their bodies that they are unhappy with. What I'm slowly leading to is that there is undoubtedly a peer pressure aspect to wishing you're more thin.
ReplyDeleteThe worst thing one can do for the self-esteem is open a beauty magazine. It's not unusual for models to be on drugs or even unrealistically skinny. There should be a happy medium between being fat and anorexic and in my opinion that it truly beautiful.
I couldn't agree with this post anymore. It actually makes me sick how ridiculous girls get now-a-days when it comes to their body image. I'm not saying I don't complain once in awhile, but some girls go above and beyond. Girls in our grade that don't even weigh enough to give blood are saying "I'm so fat, I want to lose 10 pounds!!!" From where? They are either under weight, or just right. It upsets me because they could have it so much worse. Who cares if you're fat or skinny? I'd rather be obese with a good heart and a good personality, than be anorexic with an evil heart and a crappy personality. I just wish girls didn't beat themselves up so much over their body image. I always like to think about what it would be like if everyone was blind. Getting to know someone for whom they truly are rather than what they look like would change peoples' opinions dramatically.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Sarah, you still have to write about language, literature, or story in each post. -Not that a topic like body image is off-limits, you just need to find the intersection between body image and language, body image and literature, or body image and story.
ReplyDeleteThat said, this post, and all of your previous ones are stylish, well written and insightful (good things for your classmates to read) and the comments (that you give and get) make you an important participant in our English IV blogosphere.
*Be sure to cite statistics like the one mentioned here. -This is easy to do online as you can hyperlink the fact to its source.