"You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful." -Amy Bloom
The need to be skinny takes over the want to be happy. Girls go the extra mile to feel weightless. We look at Victoria Secret models and think to ourselves, "I want to look like that" when in reality, it's an unattainable norm. When girls hear compliments now a days, it's so much more than "You look beautiful", or "Wow you're so pretty." It's quickly turned into, "Wow you look so skinny." Society and social media has distorted the perception of body image.
We used to admire curves. From the days of old Hollywood icons such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, an hourglass physique was the ideal perception of what a body should look like. Girls use to own their curves and be confident in their physique. Although icons like Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor were still lean, they weren't afraid to have a little meat on their bones and they admired their sexuality. Women weren't ashamed of their "not model like" bodies.
Now a days, society has changed the perception of what it's like to be skinny. All we see on TV, or social media, or even in magazines, are stick thin models who encourage young women to look like them.
Girls number one fear these days is gaining weight and not looking or feeling "skinny enough." I have been around so many girls that have gone the extra lengths to look like the models they see in magazines. And that's not to say this is only a female issue. Believe it or not, there are many males out there who feel the need to look skinny as well.
We're so focused on looking like models that we're not actually focusing on the costs it takes to look like them. We're creating this perception of what it looks like to be skinny, that we're not actually being accurate with our bodies.
"Take care of your body, it's the only place you have to live." - Jim Rohn
We cannot sit here and let our minds bully our bodies. Our bodies are made to be kept healthy and by society and social media distorting the perception of what it looks like to be skinny, we are ruining the bodies that God granted us with. Yes, it's okay to want to change the way you look. It's okay to go on diets and it's okay to want to workout and shed some pounds. But when we spend endless amounts of time looking in the mirror, nitpicking every square inch of our body, and telling ourselves that we aren't skinny enough, that's when we should realize that our perception of body image has changed.
Let's stop downgrading women, and men for this matter, on what it means to be skinny.
