"Perfect" Body Image Stereotypes in The Society

Body image refers to an individual misperception to his or her current body size and may involve either simulating r illusionistic, that is, perceiving one’s body size as petite or chunky than it objectively is. A negative body image is formed as people compare themselves to others because people are exposed to countless media images, the photographs become the basis for some of these comparisons. People are at risk for developing detrimental attitudes towards their figure build on consciousness likewise; eating disorders, feeding severe lack of dissatisfaction, and anxiety.

We live in an era where obsessing over our bodies became a daily activity. The female form has been idealized since the beginning of human existence. It’s an ongoing fight that woman have to go through on daily basis. Yet it’s been approximately five hundred years that the ideal body has changed drastically, it is tough to anticipate something that has revolutionized numerous times throughout generation after generation in accordance to what civilization judgment to “beauty” is. The “ideal” woman was portrayed as big boned and curvy all the way through the seventeenth and eighteenth century. Yet the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the corset came along; waist cincher, it helped to accentuate the body to an hourglass by holding a woman’s waist and supporting her bosom. However, women shall not be under the impression to feel obligated to reconstruct their bodies and segregate themselves from others who they believe are skinnier or more fit. One’s body is what makes us as a society who we are. Every single person is unique due to individual physical traits. Even though everyone has an opinion about his or her perfect body would be, changing one’s personal features would take away from individuality and every single person will look the same that you wouldn’t distinguish each other apart.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In the eyes of society, women like Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, and Khloe Kardashian are the prototype of perfection. What girl doesn’t desire to be like one them? Media is becoming an increasingly dominant part of our daily lives and has been proven to be incredibly influential. Ever since the idea of smartphones and tablets came to be, social networking has elevated in popularity like Twitter and Instagram where trillions of people can join and construct their own personal account while keeping in touch with each other. One may think that’s all social media consists of but in reality the purpose of media has started to become the complete opposite of its proposition. Social media platforms became extremely pernicious - not in a firsthand and physical way but deliberately emotionally and mentally- as they are able to exploit just about anyone to compel them to conclude their ideal of the flawless body image. Furthermore, with the availability of using technology shaping and forming the physical features of any human body to impossible achievable heights. Countless hours on television are given to advertisements striving to convince the average American on buying a product that will result in dieting, beauty, and increased popularity within their peers.

The media infrequently presents a women's average body type to the viewers a positive message but goes as far as judging those who are overweight or "ugly" as people stereotype. Something simple as flipping through any women’s magazines you will show you the manmade bodies that have been heavily photoshopped and will see models who are painfully underweight, and putting people to shame about their bodies. Yet the media is not only responsible for making people feel uncomfortable with their bodies they are also the cause why people have eating disorders. Many people are suffering from negative body image which leads to lack of dissatisfaction with oneself and can cause many negative effects, some of the more common disorders such as self-harm, depression, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. It can also take a risk to unhealthy habits such as smoking, alcohol and even drugs, although maybe not all, have issues related to body image. Eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses that cause severe interference to several thousand people yearly, considering now a day it’s so common since social media came to be. People go as far as having an extremely low-calorie diet, they may also over exercise excessively, abuse diet pills and self-induced vomiting after eating to remove all the toxins they just ate while bingeing and purging, from their bodies. An unfitting body is considered a universal problem, a common struggle many people around the globe share. We must comprehend that even though others assumptions of ourselves may have shaped and prioritize our prevailing principles of the ‘‘perfect” body image, we are in control of our minds. We have the power to reshape these ideals into positive ways of thinking about our bodies.

At the end of the day, we are all human beings, we all have defects. Your body is yours and you should love it for all the things it can do.