Society and Body Image

While on twitter, I came across a link to vote on “Maxim’s Hot 100 Women of 2013”. I decided to look at the nominees to see if I could find anyone who I thought deserved to win based on their personality and accomplishments, since that’s what I consider “hot.” As I looked through the list of nominees I was hard pressed to find a woman whose most famous accomplishment was not either forgetting underwear, doing some kind of illicit/licit substance, or being some dude’s side kick (either in real life or a film). Not to say that these lovely women do not have other greater accomplishments but such things as, charity work, work ethic, and personality are often not recognized and celebrated as much as legal and relationship troubles are. 

We are judged by how we appear instead of who we are. Throughout our lives we are bombarded by our (yes, OUR) society with images of impossibly skinny, full busted, plump lipped pimple-free beauties that we come to believe are what we have to be in order to be perfect. 99.99% of us fail. This failure is hard on us because of the proverbs such as “try hard and you will succeed" that we are used to hearing. If we are not good in a school subject then we can study more to improve in that subject. If we are not good at a certain sport or musical instrument then we can just spend more time working on our craft. “Practice makes perfect” does not apply to physical beauty because we will never be at the “top of our game" when it comes to physical beauty because the standards are always rising. “Oh, you got rid of your love-handles… now it is time to flatten that tummy!" Our society is obsessed with being physically perfect! Weight loss commercials with the newest celebrity (who, by the way, used to love her figure, but now claims to feel much better because she can wear t-shirts meant for fourteen year olds while assuring us that she is happier because she, “can keep up with her kids") now tells us how easy it is for all of us (including her) to achieve the weight and shape that we have always wanted. This situation is all too common in today’s media. When I think of women who are celebrated and admired, yet do not fit into society’s size standards, only one woman will come to mind: the always amazing, Adele! I feel like we should put her in a panic room just to keep her safe from becoming brainwashed like every other, not bigger, but NORMAL woman who has the honour (or misfortune, depending on how you look at it) to live in this society.

To fight against this belief in physical beauty, people tell us that it is what is on the inside and not the outside that counts. “Dove” campaigns, feminists, and men all try to change the perception that beauty is skin deep, but their message can be hard to believe. Have you ever noticed that the best selection of clothing is for the size “small”? There is not only a more plentiful selection for the size “small” but often the smaller the size, the cheaper the price. What society deems over-sized (“large”, “extra-large”, etc.) is often very limited in terms of choice and many stores only carry clothes up to a certain size. For example, if you need an “extra-extra-large” or anything above a size 14 you would probably have to visit a store that specifically carries “plus size” clothing. This creates an internalized belief that “smaller is better”. This does not only happen to females but females are more often subjected to these messages. There are stores for men, such as “Big and Tall”, but have you ever seen a store for women called “Big and Busty”? Probably not. 

Women think that they have to be thin in order to gain approval from people, especially men. In our society it is more common for an overweight man to be with a skinny or normal sized woman than vice versa. Why? It is because women know how hard it is to achieve the “perfect body”, so they are more forgiving for their partner’s “shortcomings”? I don’t know but it is a possibility. 

Even commercials that try to decrease the belief that weight loss is a tool to lose weight often fail. “Special K” has a campaign that tries to create the idea that the importance of losing weight is to be happy, satisfied, and to feel beautiful, and not just to look good. However, all I can see from this is that consumers are going to insinuate that in order to be happy, satisfied, successful, and beautiful all one needs to do is lose weight and that is often never the case. These beliefs that weight loss leads to everything else falling into place come up short because these things cannot give us what we are truly looking for. Instead, they alienate us and move us further away from our goal because we have created this connection. Instead of looking at what is outside of us, we should be looking at what is inside of us. We have to identify, recognize, and change these contradictions that society is telling us. This way, we can start to find what will truly make us beautiful, and have the life each of us desires and deserves!   

Mandy V. Penney