Body love seems to be what everyone is talking about. The body image movement is in full throttle let be news articles or musicians. They all say the same thing: Stop cropping waist lines and show us what a real woman looks like!
The harm the fashion industry is doing to the average woman's self esteem in the US is surprisingly damaging. Women and girls alike struggle to look like the image that they are told is beautiful with no account for body type, ethnicity, or history. What's even more troubling is that it's not only high school girls and adults that are worrying about their weight. Elementary girls are in the struggle as well.
Kaelin Tully told Buzz Feed, "I can remember being hyper-aware of my body as a little kid. I was 8 years old and refused to wear pants at all because I was worried about showing everyone how chubby my thighs were. Thinking back, it was kind of bizarre for an 8-year-old to feel that way."
To make matters worse, the images that these little girls are struggling to imitate are not actually real. The gorgeously smooth, flawless skin and hour glass figure that is portrayed by the models are actually as blemished as you and me. With the help of Photoshop and other softwares, already skinny models are being slimmed down, airbrushed over and almost totally done over until you would never recognize them in real life.
Beautyredifined.com stated in a recent article, "When superstar singer Kelly Clarkson was digitally slimmed down almost beyond recognition on Self’s September 2009 cover, people noticed. Her appearance on “Good Morning America” within just days of the cover shoot proved that her body did not look anything like the very thin one that appeared on the cover."
However unethical these actions may be, it does not give license to be unhealthy. Although the models are depicted as being long limbed, willowy creatures that easily slip into a size xxxs, the reality is that some people have not been in a size zero since they were in the fifth grade. That is, if they ever were. That being said, it probably isn't a good idea to accept an unhealthy weight and cease all exercise with the idea that what is depicted by the media is faked.
There is a healthy weight range for all bodies, men and women. If that range is passed the body is put at greater risk. Heart disease, stroke, type two diabetes, and clotting are just a few examples of what would happen if obesity is left unchecked.
It is all too easy to ignore the advice of doctors and other medical professionals when it comes to how to care for the body. This could be the case even more so for moms. Baby weight has a nasty way of sticking to every part of the body. Expecting mothers are instructed to consume an alarming amount of calories in order to provide for the growing person inside her. Those eating habits can easily follow into new parent life.
What the media industry does with photoshop is mortifying. The movement that is in place against it thrive to get realistic models depicted in magazines and in videos. The misrepresentation of the "average" body is driving young girls and adults alike into eating disorders, fad dieting and shattered self esteem.
Although it's okay to say "Love your body" it is not okay to use those words as an excuse to not be healthy. What the body image movement is trying to address is real. What the media does is cruel and, in some cases, irreversibly damaging. But, that does not mean that men and woman should not strive to be healthy. Everyone, overweight or otherwise need diet and exercise in order to stay healthy - if not for ourselves, then for our children.
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