What does the perfect body look like? Thin? Voluptuous? Muscular? Most people, believe it or not, are preoccupied with the “perfect” body shape, size, and weight and are critical of themselves for being too fat or too thin or for simply not fitting the “ideal.” And what is the ideal? Women are supposed to be thin, curvaceous, muscular and delicate – all at once!
Where does this message come from?
Many of our body image ideas are shaped by the media, the beauty industry, and outdated notions of health & fitness. Ironically, a majority of photos in the media that portray women with perfect bodies are enhanced by modern technology to achieve that effect. In today’s society, a woman is supposed to have big breasts, a large butt, a tiny waist, impossibly long legs and not an ounce of fat anywhere! If you don’t look like that, well, you learn the lesson: you are not ok as you are, your body is not ok the way it is.
But you ARE ok! What size should you be? Well, people come in all shapes and sizes. Genetics, the environment a person grows up in, their nutritional intake, lifestyles – all these things affect body shape and size.
So what size should you be? Me-size. Believe it or not, body size diversity is normal.
Comments