Your Worth is Based on More Than What You See in The Mirror

National eating disorder collaboration (http://www.nedc.com.au/body-image) defines body image as:

“Body image is the perception that a person has of their physical self and the thoughts and feelings that result from that perception. These feelings can be positive, negative or both and are influenced by individual and environmental factors.”

All throughout history, there has always been an expectation of what women should look like, from the 1910’s of the figure 8 Gibson girl to the petite figure of the 1960’s “twig” and then a 360 turn to today’s age of the booty babe. With the constant change of what is deemed “beautiful” in our society, it’s no wonder so many young girls feel insecure and unworthy because of their bodies. In fact, Mission Australia’s 2015 national youth survey revealed that 1 in 4 young people have serious body concerns about themselves, with this alarming rate it is clear to see that negative body image is such a prevalent issue plaguing the young people of Australia.

The question we need to ask is why? Why is body image still a massive issue in our society? Especially when there is so much awareness, education and campaigning in our schools, universities, workplaces and social places. One of the constant denominators of this issue is the media. 77% of Australian women blame their poor body image on the ‘unrealistic standards’ that are advertised and set by the media. With the growing epidemic of Victoria secret angels, it’s difficult to feel beautiful in your own skin when models are constantly being held on a pedestals, been made the pinnacle of beauty when in fact they are just the same as you and me, made of flesh and bone. We, as young girls, need to band together to overrule the idealisms and expectations that are put on our bodies, we need to realise that our worth lies far beyond what’s on the outside and that no matter what people say about your body, you are uniquely beautiful, perfectly sculptured in your mother’s wombs, born to have a purpose far greater than the social pressures placed on women’s bodies.

Most women attribute their unhappiness with their body to their weight, proving that the media has played a massive influence upon the thought distortions of younger women as skinny, “perfect”, beautiful models are constantly thrown down their throats, it has been embedded in their brains that being skinny equals beauty. The dove global and confidence conference revealed that 9 in 10 women and 7 in 10 girls stopped eating or put their health at risk in the pursuit of losing weight so that they could feel better about themselves in relation to the way they hoped their bodies would look at the end of the process. Dove revealed that 89% of Australian women are opting to cancel plans, job interviews and important engagements due to the way they feel about their bodies and the way they look. This statistic alone shows the problem in our society, women feeling so insecure about their bodies that they forgo important aspects of living a healthy life. Another unhealthy and distressing statistic is, 75% of Australian high school girls would choose a thinner figure than their own, which echoes once again the insecurity of our younger population which reflects the prevalent issue of harmful weight loss amongst teenage girls. These rates indicate that body image is taking its toll on women throughout Australia as women perceive their bodies negatively more than positively in most circumstances.

So with this information, it’s time to decide whether you will sit by and let this destructive pattern continue or will you stand in the way to break the societal expectations placed on the bodies of women around the world. Let’s create a world that accepts all body types; skinny, curvy, long hair, short hair, crooked nose, straight nose, blue eyes, green eyes, brown eyes, long torsos, short torsos, muscly or lanky. We need to start teaching young girls that these traits are what makes them beautiful and that their bodies are made to be strong, to weather sickness, heartbreak, loss but also good times, happy times. Their bodies are wonderful and amazing, their bodies become sources of life, a miracle on earth. We also need to teach young girls that it isn’t just what’s on the outside that makes them beautiful but it’s their thoughts and their laughs and their ability to feel empathy and to love, these traits also contribute to their beauty. We need to teach our young girls that their worth doesn’t come from their body or what someone says about their body or the way other people’s bodies look but their worth comes from within themselves, straight teeth or not. We need to teach our young girls these lessons so that we can break barriers and raise young confident women who are unshakeable in their worth and unshakeable in their love for themselves, their love for their bodies.

Tina Fey wrote in Bossypants, “Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits.”

• Timeline of expected body type through the years:

• 1910: The Gibson girl

• 1920: The flapper

• 1930: The soft siren

• 1940: The star-spangled girl

• 1950: The hourglass

• 1960: The twig

• 1970: The disco diva

• 1980: The supermodel

• 1990: The waif

• 2000: The buff beauty

• 2010: The booty babe

#body #beauty #bodyimage