The media is obsessed with the female body. For example, last month Kim Kardashian posted a nude selfie on her Instagram. The way I see it, it is great that she is is confident in her body and wants to share it. What is concerning is what a spectacle it was. I saw it on the news. I disagree with the obsession through media with the female body. I find it more inspiring to cover news about what women are doing with their bodies. I am not critiquing women who post nude pictures of themselves; I am critiquing the obsession the population has with the body.

We live in a visual world. While both men and women are subjected to comparison of physical attractiveness, I am focusing on the standard of beauty women are held to. I will never know what it is like to be a man or how a man feels, so I will stick with what I know to be true by my own observation, objectification, research and experience. I believe that the impossible beauty standard to which we, as females, are held to is the result of what media portrays to be beautiful. This issue is close to my heart, because I believe women constantly rob themselves of joy because they compare themselves to the beauty standard projected by magazines and Photoshop. According to Mark Twain, and I agree, “Comparison is the death of joy.” If you live the entirety of your life by evaluating your happiness in comparison to other people, you’ll never be satisfied. Greed is always hungry. Those who lose themselves in it will starve. It is physically impossible to look exactly like someone else. The goal of this is to speak this message to women, to erase the notion that there is one picture of beauty and to empower women to view themselves as more than just a body. I want to change the way individuals view someone as sexy, attractive and beautiful. I believe the body is merely a vessel; the true beauty of an individual lies within one’s heart, soul and mind.

We obsess over the bodies of women who are paid to work out for hours every day. There is no way to look like a Victoria’s Secret model while holding a full-time job that is not modeling. So stahp!

Another example: Angelina Jolie is a huge advocate through the United Nations of human rights. In crafting this research paper, I participated in a Tweetchat. Twitter has ‘chats,’ where thousands of people pick a topic and participate in an hour-long conversation with each other, before Twitter introduces a new topic. I posed the question, “Which of the following is true regarding Angelina Jolie? She has sexy lips, fit physique, and is married to Brad Pitt, the United Nations awarded her Humanitarian of the year in 2014, and she has written and directed three of her own movies.” A majority of the people commented on her “perfect lips” and how they “wished she would put out her lip secrets like Kylie Jenner.” Only three people commented on the United Nations awarding her with Humanitarian of the year in 2014.

Millions of people tune in every year to the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, which features women who are paid to exercise multiple times a day, to eat minimal diets and to wax every hair on their bodies that grows below their chins. Women watch the fashion show and compare themselves to the ladies on the runway. I even had the urge to go workout again after seeing Adriana Lima in a G-string and feathered wings, looking more fit than I ever will.

Be proud of your body. But more importantly, be proud of what you do with that body. What are you creating? How are you influencing the people around you? What have you accomplished? Next time you wonder if you look beautiful, don’t look in the mirror; look within.