In a recent Instagram post, the actress, model and singer Zendaya called out Modeliste Magazine on the retouching of one of her photos. In the retouched photo, her waist, hips and thighs are slimmed down to make her look thinner. Zendaya said,
"Had a new shoot come out today and was shocked when I found my 19-year-old hips and torso quite manipulated. These are the things that make women self conscious, that create the unrealistic ideals of beauty that we have. Anyone who knows who I am knows I stand for honest and pure self love. So I took it upon myself to release the real pic (right side) and I love it😍😘"
Of course, she is not the first celebrity to complain about this retouching of photos, but something particular about her post caught my attention, and it was the word "manipulated." That, to me, brought a whole other idea into context. The media is not just changing our standards of beauty, but it is manipulating them. Changing the lighting in the background of the photo is one thing, but completely manipulating the proportions of her body is another. It is a way of saying you are not thin enough, so let me fix that for you. I am not sure what society's obsession with thin bodies is, particularly for women. It goes so far as to use celebrities and other models as a guide of human recognition with a manipulated body, where this "manipulated" thin-ness is the norm and women of any other size are meant to feel ashamed.
If fat-shaming was not enough, society has now countered that point with another absurd obsession: "real women have curves." Does this mean if I don't have curves I am not a real woman? OK, I didn't know I could be fictional based on my body type.
This manipulation of what is desired is what is keeping people from completely loving themselves, which becomes a continuous struggle. Self-love is a difficult thing to accomplish, especially with all these trends. We had the big booty trend, the thigh gap trend, the big lip trend and the corset shaping trend, which all turned into an ambition for a body we don't all possess. How can we possess these qualities if the trends start from different people? It is completely superficial, and we have a lot of caring, honest, loving, decent humans out there hating themselves because of the way they look. There are thousands and thousands of people becoming submissive to the idea of what is the perfect body, or at least what is attractive.
It is difficult to love yourself when your body is up for debate. From what I have seen on social media and what I have experienced in real life, it is hard to love what other people tell you to hate. The media is manipulating the idea of what is beauty, but we are manipulating our sense to think for ourselves. We accept these trends and try to change ourselves instead of refusing to buy the magazines that tell us how to look or refusing to acknowledge that we are different and that is what makes us amazing. I admire Zendaya for standing up for her values and not letting anyone change who she really is inside and out. I can't say love yourself right now because it would be hypocritical of me since I sometimes struggle with that myself, but I can at least suggest to accept yourself and begin to mark your own standard of beauty.
