I find it so absolutely unbelievable that we attack individuals who might have a poor self-image precisely because of such. How in god’s name does someone make it living in this society without being at least a little bit insecure?
Sure, we say it’s important to be an intelligent and kind human-beings but it’s not as important as being beautiful. Look at the way our media, the reporters from which don’t look like us, treats beautiful people. We idolize and worship beautiful people precisely because they are beautiful and the message that’s sent to us is “if you don’t look like these airbrushed people who we also airbrushed digitally, there’s something wrong with you.” We worship guys like George Clooney for being a human-being by giving a shit about Sudan and we’ll give him a spot on the morning, evening, and nightly news but forget about any expert on the region or an actual Sudanese. When we see these manufactured people all around us who don’t look like us but are successful and idolized because of their looks, our perception of the world is going to be distorted whether we like it or not.
There’s no escaping it either. When acne commercials show devastated airbrushed people with a tiny, insignificant spot on their face, what is the kid with a face full of acne supposed to think? When most toothpaste commercials advertise teeth whitening and the embarrassed actors who are supposed to have “bad” teeth have a perfectly straight, eye-blaringly white smile, what are the rest of us supposed to think? When every shampoo ad is geared towards promising a product that recreates that perfectly straight and smooth Swedish blonde hair, what are those with frizzy and curly hair supposed to think? When we fill an entire industry that is supposed to represent beauty by handpicking light-skinned individuals who either do not represent the norm and are much thinner than average or starve themselves to fit this image, how are the rest of us supposed to think when we look at ourselves and don’t see what we’re constantly told is how we need to look?
It’s never-ending. We’re constantly being told that there’s something wrong or missing and we need to fix it in order to escape shame, embarrassment, and to be successful. We say yes, love who you are and be proud of yourself but… take this cream to get rid of the dark circles under your eyes. Look into this plastic surgeon to fix your nose because it’s not skeletal like each and every person’s who’s on the television, in movies, or magazine ads. Inject your skin with cancer-causing fillers because it’s less desirable to have wrinkles than it is to stick needles in your face or potentially get cancer. I think you get the point.
By beating on someone for not having a perfect self-image when they’re constantly surrounded by voices who are telling them they’re inadequate in some way and that it’s shameful, you’re quite simply adding to the problem because you are yet another voice screaming amongst the crowd. You’re bullying this person for already being bullied and having the nerve to feel bad about it.
When nearly 80% of young-adults have a poor body image and 40% of 4-10-year-olds have dieted and you can’t understand why, then maybe you’re a part of the problem.
(via sanaa-tamir)
