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Body Image Essay

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Everyone who brings home a bad report card knows that with a little effort they can better their grades. Yet there are some things in life that you cant change and the way you look is one of them. In today’s society teenage girls face an ongoing battle to attain the perfect body image. The following paper discusses the definition of perfect, why we strive to attain this impossible ideal, why we don’t fight to change the image, and the consequences that can result from this battle to please.

A dictionary definition of perfect is: 1. complete, having all its essential qualities 2. faultless, excellent 3. exact, precise 4. entire, total(1). Now does this seem like a reasonable goal to strive for? Absolutely not, it is impossible, yet so …show more content…

The effects of a narrow feminine ideal are crippling. (4) Girls who assume they must be thin to please, and be accepted in today’s world have a very negative mental attitude contributing to their compulsive behavior to be perfect. Women are enslaved to a beauty myth, chained to the false belief that our value is based on our appearance alone. (5) Women can be very vulnerable and susceptible to believing that such notions are reality, even though they know in their heart that it is not the truth. We allow ourselves to fall victim to the mind games that the media plays with us to convince our minds that thin equals good and fat equals bad. The need for the ideal body image takes its tolls on a female, mentally not just physically. When one gets caught up in the desire to please others it can distract [them] from what [they] truly feel. One who excessively pleases places her worth into the hands of other people and depends completely upon their judgment while doing their best to influence their judgment. (6) It is mentally unfavorable to depend on the critique of other for one’s own sense of self, yet it is an ongoing problem that occurs every day in many parts of the world.

Why do we strive for this ideal image? One of the leading reasons we struggle to attain this ideal is to survive in today’s society. It is survival of the fittest and every girl wants to come out on top. Unfortunately, not everyone can win the never-ending game that is

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