The infamous “summer bod,” despite the seasonal name it haunts women through every season. As early as winter magazines will begin telling you how to prepare for bikini season, and in the midst of summer we are being bombarded with not only the horror stories of bikini waxes and tips on tanning, but with increased exposure on the perfect diet to drop 10 pounds quick, how to get abs in 5 simple steps, et cetera, et cetera.
This saturation of bikini ready bodies—flat stomachs, toned thighs, prominent collar bones—does not encourage young girls to get healthy, but instead to push themselves to drop weight and obsess over a number on a scale. In a society with an increasing prevalence of eating disorders in young women, this ideology is dangerous. As girls get ready to have a summer of fun, it becomes a season of self doubt and hate.
It’s hard to escape the summer bod: articles litter Facebook and Instagram, girls see beach photos flooding Instagram. The pressure doesn’t solely come from the demeaning articles on the best and worst celebrity summer bodies, using videos pulled from family vacations and intimate time with their significant others while at the beach, but the pressure can also be felt from seeing peers online. A young girl comparing herself to the girl she sat down next to in algebra can be significantly more damaging than the woman on People magazine.
When a girl sees a celebrity, she knows there’s unreal expectations, but when she sees a friend looking Seventeen magazine approved doubt is put into her head as to why she doesn’t look like that too. The more girls see their friends falling victim to this pressure, the more likely she too will begin to worry about her body.
The pressure to look perfect for the season, for bathing suits and short shorts, is ridiculous. A girl’s worth isn’t measured by her waist size, all these articles that focus on the body should be talking about how to love it and feel confident in it. Rather than a 30-day get fit challenge, I’d like to see a 30-day body positivity challenge. Instead of photos showing how much weight was dropped from intensive dieting and exercise routines I’d like to see before and after photos of the same girl in the same bikini looking more confident after looking at herself in the mirror and choosing to love her reflection.
It’s not a horrible thing to want to lose weight, or to want to work on yourself to feel more confident. But if it’s the sunkissed bodies featured in magazines that are the root of the self doubt, maybe it would be better to look at your interior rather than what you’re afraid people see on the outside. You’re always your biggest critic, so next time you’re at the beach and you don’t like how you look in a photo ask a friend what she thinks, maybe your stomach doesn’t look as bad as you think, maybe it’s just a matter changing up your perspective.
