The pressure on women/girls these days to be thin, or to look a certain way, is immense. It disgusts me how people link being slim with being happy. "Slim" and "happy" are not synonymous. They do not work together - "slim" is not something we need to be happy.
I hate how we make losing weight and starvation such a fantastic thing in society these days. Women are constantly bombarded (I'm not saying it's just women, this is just my experience talking) with ways to "slim down" or something like that.
I was reading a magazine the other day that said "Dress cleverly to improve your shape!" then, directly below it said, "learn to love your classic British figure!".
No.
Just no.
"Dressing cleverly" to "improve your shape" is not, by any means, loving your figure. How does that even make sense!?
As a teenage girl in this society, I'm very, very tired of people shaming their bodies. It's like, you're either beautifully thin/fit with abs and toned everything, or you're beautifully curvy. Magazines and media portray it as if these are the only ways to be. No - these are not the only ways to be. I am not thin or toned, but I am also not curvy. But that's OK.
Every single magazine I see is plastered with pages of how to lose a stone in two weeks, how to dress to make yourself look slimmer, etc, etc. But then, three pages forward, there's someone telling you to love yourself the way you are!! What are we supposed to think when we read these kind of things!? I just think it's appalling how women are so objectified - not just by men; by other women too!
We're expected to be perfect. We expect women in magazines to be perfect. And then, one day, a few celebrities come out without makeup and it's all over the gossip magazines: Who looks the ugliest without makeup? (Yes, I actually saw this once!), Think she's pretty? Think again! and so on. Isn't that horrible? - These people have feelings too, you know. Just because they're celebrities doesn't mean they don't get offended by these kinds of comments.
It makes me sick when people shame any type of body or look. It's like, in our culture, we can't compliment one body shape without offending another. It's either, "Oh, here's how to be slimmer to make a happier you"; or "Curvy girls are REAL women". There's no in between. There's no way of being what society expects you to be. If you're thin, you're not "real". But if you're curvy, you're "fat" or "ugly".
Um... in case no one's realised - ALL WOMEN ARE REAL WOMEN. OK? ARE WE MADE OF PLASTIC? DO WE LOOK FAKE? NO? OK, THEN WE'RE REAL. No matter what our shape or size, we're all real and beautiful. Don't ever let anyone tell you different - not even the magazines that promise you you'll be happier if you lose 30 pounds (FYI, you won't be happier).
Why can't we compliment people without offending other people? Why can't we make comments like, "Your eyes are beautiful", "I love your smile" or "you look so happy" instead of "I love your curves!" or "You look so slim!"?
Come on, women and girls... we can prove that we're beautiful the way we are. God made us the way we are because he wanted us that way. He made us all different, didn't he? Exactly, so let's not try to be in this little fake, non-existent thing called perfection. Let's not try and make ourselves squeeze in to a size 10 just because someone tells us that's what makes us beautiful. Let's love ourselves in whatever state our bodies are in; whether we have bags under our eyes, pale skin, or anything else that society tells us is wrong. Let's love ourselves, even when the entire world are trying to tell us not to.
All my life I’ve been striving for this thing called “perfection”. This is something I’ve seen in magazines, on TV, in books, even on the street. I think every girl or woman has that in them somewhere. I think we all want to be as beautiful as that singer in the magazine, or as beautiful as that woman on TV. It makes me so sad to see girls and even women that feel like this: young teenage girls striving for something that doesn’t really exist, for something that always seems unreachable (maybe because it is!). This thing that is flaunted in our faces everywhere we turn, everywhere we look.
I think - I think - I've finally realised that perfection is not something we can achieve.
And I think I'm one step closer to finally being free.
