― Geneen Roth, Women, Food, and God: An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything
Being hated is horrible feeling. What's even worse, however, is hating yourself. While women (and maybe men too...) have always struggled with wanting to be more attractive, today's women are living in a world that practically encourages self-hatred. Women and girls naturally compare themselves to other females around them and mentally rank themselves as more or less beautiful. We even do this when it comes to images on television, billboards or magazines. Comparing yourself to every woman on the street takes a toll on your self-image, but as soon as you start comparing yourself to a perfect, thin, styled, photoshopped image of a model it becomes virtually impossible to feel beautiful.
Now, I may only have been an anthropology major for a couple of semesters, but I'm going to go ahead and jump to the conclusion that our culture is indirectly destroying the lives of our young women. The way I see it, there are two ways we determine what is "beautiful": the way of natural attraction, and the way of cultural ideals. Naturally beautiful traits are those that are considered attractive by nearly every person regardless of when and where they live. Cleanliness, facial symmetry, and overall health are all examples of some pretty basic naturally beautiful traits. Cultural beauty, however, is when we get all out-of-whack. For example...
The ancient Aztecs believed that it was beautiful to have long, pointed skulls. A few short weeks after being born, they would wrap the back of their babies' heads while their skulls were soft and moldable so that when they grew up, they could have beautiful heads. Back then, they thought it was beautiful. Today? Pretty dumb.
During the T'ang dynasty in China, an empress was born with small, deformed feet. This gal felt so self-conscious about her tiny feet that she decided to make it so that tiny feet were actually considered beautiful. From then on, it became necessary by law for all girls to bind their feet so that they would stay short and deformed forever. This would make them "beautiful" like the queen. Ouch. Purposely deforming your own feet isn't beautiful at all...it's just dumb.
During the Renaissance, Europeans thought it was attractive to have high foreheads. Those that weren't lucky enough to be born with big foreheads shaved their hairline back an inch or so. It was like the reverse effect of bangs. Also, it wasn't uncommon for women to shave off their eyebrows (think Mona Lisa's look.) Think about it: no eyebrows and big, shaved up foreheads. Dumb.
In 19th century America, wealthy plantation owners were looking for every excuse to justify using slaves. With this sort of mindset, fragile, fainting women who were too weak to work came to be considered attractive. Women strangled themselves with tight-fitting corsets which made them short of breath, prone to headaches, and even sometimes dislocated visceral organs. Some wealthier women even went to far as to having ribs surgically removed so that they could get their corsets tighter. I'm sure if a cone-headed Aztec were to see one of these women, they'd have one thing to say for sure: "That's just DUMB" (except, they'd say it in their Aztec-y language...)
Today, America is obsessed with thinness again, but in a different way. Rather than going to unhealthy lengths to squeeze into an hourglass-shaped corset, today's woman feels the pressure to diet and diet and diet and diet and diet and diet and diet and diet down to a size zero because we treat body fat like it's some sort of parasite. Now, we may not have a conceited empress telling us all to starve ourselves, but we do have a culture-making agent present that's pretty powerful as well: the media. The media doesn't come out and say "You're fat! Starve yourself until you're as thin as Nicole Richie or you'll never be beautiful!" but it gets pretty close. Look at an issue of "Star" or some other celebrity gossip magazine and count how many times a celebrity is criticized for being fat. Count how many diet pill, weight-loss program and workout equipment ads they play in one single commercial block. Look at clothing ads and see how many mention a "slimming" effect.
Do you see a pattern here? We as humans have always known what's beautiful and what isn't, but we complicate things by adding in cultural ideals. Even after millenniums of self-destructive behavior, we still haven't smartened up at all. In my opinion, we've gotten even dumber because now girls are practically encouraged to hate themselves when they're not good enough (FYI: No one's ever good enough. There's always someone out there who's unimpressed.)
I would go so far as to say self-destructive behavior for the sake of beauty is more than just harmful; it's sinful and wrong. However, I believe it is the images we expose ourselves to that are the main culprits. Babies don't come out of the womb with body issues, it is something that developed over time. Keep in mind that media affects the brain on a subconscious level. The best way to fight its influence is to acknowledge its effects with your conscious mind. When a runway model appears on screen, remind yourself that the woman you see is literally starving to be as thin as she is. When you see a flawless face or body in an ad, keep in mind the many wonders of photoshop. Being a little chubbier than some overpaid model is nothing to be ashamed of. If you lead an active lifestyle and eat healthy, you are living more of a life than that stick-figure ever will.
A couple months ago, the fashion industry announced that any model size 6 or bigger would now be considered "Plus Sized." Considering the average American woman wears a size 14, calling a size 6 woman "plus sized" is a huge insult. Even former supermodel and "America's Next Top Model" host, Tyra Banks, wouldn't meet their ridiculous expectations.
"The truth is that if I was just starting to model at age 17 in 2012, I could not have had the career that I did...I would've been considered too heavy. In my time, the average model's size was a four or six. Today you are expected to be a size zero. When I started out, I didn't know such a size even existed."
--Tyra Banks
I think the obesity epidemic in America is a horrible thing. I don't, however, believe the solution is to create a culture obsessed with weight loss. We should strive to be healthy, not to be thin. We shouldn't idolize any sort of body type or physical appearance, we should praise accomplishments and character traits. Everyone wants to be beautiful, but that definition of beauty changes constantly. Our bodies are just going to turn to ash when we die, so rather than obsessing with what they look like, let's focus on what we do with them. Let's workout because it makes us healthy and makes us feel good afterward. Let's eat food that satisfies our physical needs but also not be afraid to eat a hunk of cake once in a while. Let's be healthy and live rather than waste away.
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