Nobody is perfect and no body is perfect. Throughout the world today, there are ten million men and women suffering from an unhealthy body image. To their critical eyes, their bodies will never be good enough.
By Alex Deloia
2/7/2005
Thanks to airbrushing and today’s media standards of beauty, models appear to be flawless. No one is that perfect, not even the models themselves. So why is the media reflecting this unattainable goal of bodily perfection in society?
The obsession with being thin started in the 1960’s, when the gaunt, emaciated supermodel figure of Twiggy first appeared, and continued into the look of today. The media spends millions of dollars in advertising, trying to convince the population that they are never good enough. The average height of a North American model today is 5’8”, weighing in at 110 pounds.
The media says that if you try hard enough, spend enough, suffer enough, you can have the look you want...that shaping your body will somehow bring you success and happiness. Not everyone who looks flawless is as perfect as they appear. The media and advertising companies work with graphic artists to remove anything from freckles and discoloration in skin pigments to smoothing wrinkles and eliminating cellulite. The digital photographs can be stretched to make models appear taller, thinner, or add curves where needed. A photo can even be completely computer generated to fit the exact look of the moment. It seems the media is more focused on appearance rather than talent.
A distorted image of oneself is not an all-female issue. J. Shallek-Klein, author of "Striving for the Baywatch Boy Build," states that adolescent boys are also under pressure to appear more muscular. The media has elevated expectations for males to be more like the boys of Abercrombie and Fitch and other magazines. The impact that these advertisements have on men and boys can be seen in obsessive weight training, the use of steroids and dietary supplements that promise more energy and stamina for lifting.
Advertising agencies have emphasized sexuality and physical attractiveness as the selling points of products for many years, and considering the $33 billion that the diet industry makes in revenue, their strategy seems to be working.
However, not every media outlet promotes an unhealthy body image. Two years ago after being promoted to editor-in-chief of YM magazine, Christina Kelly made some changes when she publicly announced her decision to ban dieting stories and to feature larger-size models in YM. "I'm really aware of the body-image issue," said Kelly.
Many magazines that target teenage girls feature articles with information on diets, workout tips, and how-to’s. Articles including “How to Meet the Perfect Guy,” “How to Be More Popular,” and “How to Shape Up for the New Year” dominate the pages of many magazines that assume all girls are concerned only with makeup, hair, and popularity. Millions of pre-teenage girls in their most formative years read these magazines and believe all of this to be true. It’s refreshing to see a magazine that reaches over two million girls show what healthy body image really is – it’s called normalcy.
Without saying that diets are horrible and don’t waste your time with them, it’s important to realize that everything should be done in moderation. Exercise is important to a healthy lifestyle, but don’t kill yourself on your Stairmaster. Proper nutrition is important as well, but every now and then a frozen HoHo is well deserved. Be good to yourself – learn to accept yourself as who you are. After all, nobody is perfect and no body is perfect.
