Being a woman in today's society is difficult. Between keeping up with the latest fads, struggling to reach unrealistic body goals, and having the media focused on people like the Kardashians who are famous for their bodies is self-detrimental. Young adolescent girls are caking on make-up, older women are expected to not have a single wrinkle, and women in their twenties are supposed to be "slim-thick." It is disgusting because the majority of these body standards are not created by women, but by men.
The media in today's society is surrounded by the infamous hourglass shape, flawless face, and unnaturally sized bottom. There are twitter pages dedicated to "baddies" which by definition is a woman who is characterized by these features. This page reaches a huge audience of 156,000+ followers, the majority of them are men and young women.
Seeing these images on a daily basis can be a negative influence on a young girl who is experiencing puberty. It can cause body dysmorphia, self-harm, depression, eating disorders, and self-resentment. What girls need to realize is that it can be genetically impossible to look this way, and there is nothing wrong with that. Most of the women blessed with this shape were born with it. There is nothing wrong with appreciating this body type because in reality it is attractive, but understand that the 115 pound, 5'9" height, and 26-inch waist is not an easily achieved body standard. Most models who have to meet these measurements even result to dangerous measures themselves such as extreme diets, starvation, and medications not approved by the FDA.
What is even worse is that the men in our society publicly make unrealistic body image desirable. Tweets like "This is what a real body looks like." or "Don't talk to me if you look like this..." are common on social media and it is repulsive.
What is even more upsetting is that a large audience agrees.
It is time to start spreading body positivity on a large scale, and I do not mean "Real women have curves." but more so an acceptance of all body types. It is more than just fat versus skinny these days. We need to stop putting women down by their appearance. Don't put body types against each other; in other words, glorify one body type while insulting the other. Make it aware that it is normal for a girl to have cellulite, stretch marks, or love handles. Don't say a girl has a boy body because she is not curvaceous or does not have "meat on her bones". Most importantly let's stop forcing unrealistic body standards down everyone's throats since it is what is popular in media and desired by men. Let's just be respectful that everyone is shaped differently and spread the love.
