Aren T We All-Made Perfect?

To be frank, I also once had a view that only people who are skinny can be considered as beautiful. However, there is one incidence that changes my perception on the idea of what is the meaning of beauty and ‘perfect’ body. When I was in high school, I had a best friend named Alice—she was chubby and curvy. She was so obsessed with the America’s next top model shows. One day she expressed her desire to lose weight to me and I supported her. She also said that her boyfriend asked her to lose some weight to be more beautiful. She said that she really wants to look like the models and also to fulfill her boyfriend’s wish. After three months, she was hospitalized and I was so shocked with that news. She was hospitalized because there was something wrong with her intestines caused by her unhealthy diet. When I went to visit her, she looked very different—she looked sunken and sick. Begin on that day; I realized that it is really impossible to be like the models that we see everyday in the media and I also afraid on how good media is in order to distort society’s idea of beauty.

The video Dying To Be Thin and both articles by Serpell all implicated that what society values as a perfect image has a direct impact on how people view themselves. Most people are not happy with some part of their outside appearance. Pop culture and reality shows display obsessions with perfection, plastic surgery, most times exploiting insecure people who are unhappy with their appearance. The perfect body is advertised on every media outlet and constantly seen in public. There are number of people looking for that “new” and “perfect body” repeatedly going to the doctors and other professionals as well as developing eating disorders enhancing their obsession about their appearance and how unhappy they are. Unfortunately, for some people this obsession goes beyond entertainment, for some people this unhappiness and obsession is not something that just

According to the society/media’s beauty standards and expectations, women are supposed to have big breasts, small waist, and big butt as said in the interview by my sister. From a young age, girls are taught about what they are supposed to look like through media. All these girls grow up to be women who have low self-esteems because they have been shown pictures of women who they do not look like but want to look like. Women want to fit into these unrealistic images because they are eager to be known as beautiful. Studies show that the more reality television a young girl watches, the more likely she is to find physical appearance important (Thompson, 2014). Research shows that women who consume more mainstream media, place a greater importance on sexiness and overall appearance than those who do not consume as much (Mazur,

Although the world looks at bodies differently today, a variety of women bodies have not always been accepted. Everyone around girls would always tell them to be themselves, but for some reason when they decided to be themselves they were always criticized for it. You had to be a certain size before you were "accepted" and if you were an inch over the norm, you were given a hard time. In the world we live in today, we see a wide variety of body shapes. Models are bigger than we have ever seen and the amazing thing about it is, their bodies are just as beautiful if not even more beautiful than the smaller models.

Self-esteem plays a big part of body image. People have to feel good about themselves and be comfortable in their own skin to be happy. In today's world, it feels almost impossible to be happy, this generation is all about the media which makes having self-esteem 10x harder. Millions of pictures are posted of expectations of how women should look. In an article written by Pavica Sheldon, she states that ”The average American woman is 5’4 and 140 pounds, whereas the average female model portrayed in the media is 5’11 and 120 pounds”. Women are placed into a box telling them they have to look a certain way and if they don't they're simply not good enough. Besides being put into a category women numerously get called nasty names like slut or whore if they show too much. Piggy and fatty if they're overweight. Or “stick” if she's too skinny. Nothing is ever good enough is what it feels like. For example, Kylie Jenner, if you grew up watching “Keeping up with the Kardashians” you know how she looked before all the plastic surgery she got done, she now looks completely different. An account wrote, “What are they giving Kylie?” and someone quoted the tweet and said plastic. So even if women try to fix their imperfections they still get shamed down for it by calling them fake.

The way people perceive their body image is based on many different variables in his or her life. Today, one’s body image plays a key role in who they are and the popularity of that person. A man may choose a body image that is larger than himself because in society, a more masculine male is a better protector than a smaller male. It seems that women may choose to be bigger or smaller than their actual body image because the media influences perceive that a smaller woman is more attractive in society than a heavier one. An assumption of why men and women would rate themselves larger or smaller could be the result of trying to fit into the perceived societal

(HELGA DITTMAR, 2004) The National Eating Disorders Association reported that twenty years ago, the average model weighed 8 percent less than the average woman (129 pounds vs. 140 pounds). Today, the average woman is 160 pounds and the typical model weighs 23 percent less (123 pounds). (National Eating Disorder Association, 2009) This may not seem like a huge jump, but for a 5'10" woman (a typical model height), 129 pounds equals the 18.5 BMI cut-off and 123 pounds is underweight. Keep in mind that these are averages; the unsaid reality is that young women in the industry are often encouraged to lose "ten pounds." Go on “starvation diets” undergo surgeries. Too often young women in the industry shrink under insecurity and pressure to maintain an ideal size that is not realistic for their own bodies, it is even worse as they mature because agencies want them to maintain the same body weight they had at age sixteen which should not be. Research has shown that more than 72 percent of women in the United States alone wear a size 12 and above. (Corrigan, 2013) Fashion brands are supposed to project a more accurate image of what women look like, why are we still using size zero models to advertise products? If the customers on average are bigger, brands should use more realistic, diverse looking models.

In today’s society, it is effortless to argue that women are too pressured to have a perfect body. Women have an idea that they have to fulfill a look to satisfy other people because of what appeals to the common eye. Women always lower their self-esteem because of the way models look in magazines, movies, television, etc. Beautiful celebrities like Megan Fox, Kim Kardashian, and Beyoncé are what the common eye admires. Celebrities tend to be slim, wear loads of makeup, and have ideal curves. Women look up to these celebrities and wish to be just like them.

Going back through time the topic of body image was not as  . Being a size three or even five was great back in the 1980’s. There wasn't one specific body figure that women were expected or just “had” to be. Women have changed their perspectives throughout history. Both males and females have the same insecurities about their body, but women have a tendency to hold it off longer. The change of women viewing their body differently now involves a portion of the media. Of course the media is going to be involved with the presentation of a woman's body figure.

As a woman in society I have always had a hard time dealing with my body image and the pressures to fit in. There are so many burdens within society for women to fit a certain criteria to be accepted. The media has a lot to do with the way women perceive the way they "should" look and act. Friends and family are another source from which this perfect image stems from. It's not healthy for young girls and women to be stick thin and starving themselves just to go along with societal norms and look like everyone else. Women need to learn that it's okay to have they're own look and not be "perfect" because it's impossible and they'll die trying. Instead of worrying about what we look like in the

A female should not feel insecure with her body when she is comfortable in her own skin, whether or not she weights 130 pounds or 150 pounds at 5’5”. According to Rehab’s study of the evolution of the female figure over one hundred years, “the body shapes of the most admired models have remained consistently slimmer than that of the average American woman.” Due to the significant increase in mass media throughout the twentieth century of the United States, there has been a noteworthy impact on the popular image of women. A woman being dissatisfied with their body is a everyday trend around the world where as

There are many beauty standards but weight and body size is slowly becoming the main focus. These standards give a false sense of hope of having the “perfect body.” Instead of letting beauty standards be socially accepted, people should be aware of the harm they cause. Celebrities are role models to various people around the world and they are criticized for their appearance. Many of these celebrities go out and get plastic surgery, Botox injections, and Silicone implants. People that a lot of money and higher status are more likely to be able to live up to these standards. Some women are willing to sacrifice comfort and tolerate the pain to achieve them.

Every generation has a set of values that they believe make a person beautiful. In the 1940’s and 50’s it was considered beautiful to be a voluptuous woman. A woman with a large chest and full hips was the ideal woman, such as Marylyn Monroe. The difference between then and now is, young women could escape this image if need be. Today it is impossible to ignore the stick thin super models on bill boards, TV, and in magazines. The influence of society on teenagers is so much that men actually expect a woman to be that stick thin model or they are considered “fat”, “tubby”, etc. The average fashion model is 5'9" to 6' tall. The average American woman is 5' 4" tall. The average fashion model weighs 110-118 pounds. The average American woman

More recently, Sports Illustrated model, Kate Upton whom is a size 4, is now considered a plus size model and deemed to be “too curvy”. In the United States the “normal” sized woman is between the size of 6 and 10. Most of us do not understand why some put themselves through so much anguish to satisfy these body image complexes. Back in the 1950’s, models were

This generation is cruel and evil , everyone looks down on each other instead of bring each other up and being friendly to one another. Havin a “perfect body” for womens is a huge example of this world being cruel and evil. Women are often bullied for not having a “perfect body” . Nowadays if your not a size 0 , you are to big. “Body hatred and women verbally bullying one another are tied together. Culture stigmatizes women who do not meet raditional standards of beauty and , too often, women use this unforgiving reality to harshly judge one another as a mean gain leverage and power “ ( When women). This illustrates how women bully one another with body hatred. Women like to have power over each other so by saying rude harsh words about body weight they feel as if they have power over one another . Talking down on someone isn’t power it’s cruel and evil. Women have to realize that word can hurt ;however, women need to bring one another up and compliment their weight not