Don’t buy into ideal body images: They don’t mean a thing

Collectively as a society, we struggle with body image. With beauty standards contradictory and impossible to meet. Have a flat stomach, but not so flat you can see rib bones, have fat but not enough to be fat. There is always some beauty standard you’re not meeting. Constantly we feel the need to shrink, bulk, or change ourselves in some ways to fit into “ideal” beauty standards. So let talk about why we shouldn’t feel this way!  

 First of all “ideal” beauty standards are crap, with many having patriarchal and racist influences. Most standards are set by trending celebrities, who are often slim, white, cisgender, able bodied men and women. Who although beautiful, do not accurately represent the diversity present in the world outside of Hollywood. Recognizing this, if you don’t fit into an “ideal” body type, you are still beautiful!  Not to mention body ideals change just about every decade. If every person conformed to the ideal body images for each decade they were alive, that would be over 8 different body types a person would have over their life!  

 Buying into the idea that just because you don’t fit into someone else’s box you’re not beautiful is so harmful to your mental and emotional health. So many that suffer with poor mental health suffer with poor body image. Anxiety, depression and eating disorders just to name a few, all can be effected by poor body image. Not to mention diet culture, that feeds upon consumer’s poor body image, is a multi billion dollar industry! 

So the bottom line is love yourself! Love other people! Body shaming others are just a projection of your own insecurities, and believe me tearing other people down does not make you feel good about yourself. At all.  Don’t focus on what about you makes other people happy, focus on what makes you happy. If you can find a physical feature you love about yourself great! If you can’t find something to love about yourself find something to accept about yourself. Your body does so much for you. It is such a waste to spend your time feeling insecure and wondering if you’ll ever meet an “ideal” beauty standard. Really who cares, acknowledge that you will never be perfect but you can find parts of yourself that are.