Weight loss and body image are some of the hottest topics in media today. How do you stay so thin? What are your weight loss tricks? Amazing post-baby body! It's the questions asked in the break room and the captions we see in the magazine racks. We see it every day, all day long. Whether it's on our local news stations, weight loss commercials or on our favorite sitcom, weight loss is a continual presence in our media consumption. So, how could that not change the way we perceive ourselves?
There is an overwhelming urge to be skinny and that compulsion is primarily encouraged by the media. Often times when a person falls short of the media's idea of "skinny and pretty" it leads to feelings of shame, unworthiness and embarrassment. The constant pressure on women to look like Heidi Kulm or Megan Fox is changing the way women view their bodies and their worth. As women, the immense pressure we feel from the media to be "thin and pretty" can have an extremely negative influence on the way we see our bodies. This constant presence within the media shows the negative impact it is having within our society. We can't go a day without talking about diets and pants sizes. Someone's pants size should never be a measurement of their worth.
Having this type of influence repeatedly broadcast within the media is dropping the self-confidence of every woman and young girl that does not fit the media's ideal mold. Maintaining a fit and healthy lifestyle is something every individual should work towards, but the media has created a need to be skinny and excluded the need to be healthy. It encourages fad diets and diet pills in order to be what is considered attractive in society's eyes. Instead of fad diets and diet pills, focus on living an active lifestyle and eating the proper nutrition for your body type. Your healthy weight and perfect body will follow. Not everyone is fit and healthy at a size one or even a size three. For some, their healthiest may be at a size nine.
This continual encouragement to be skinny over healthy has already begun to infect our younger generations. If we want to avoid a world where 9 year old girls talk about Atkins over board games and glitter eye shadow, then we need to send the right messages to our younger generations. We need to change the way beauty is viewed by having confidence in our own uniqueness. There needs to be less focus on carbs and calories and more focus on building a generation of strong women who can love every freckle they were given. No beauty is the same.
