Bodies in Society
With every corner you turn, you are bombarded with magazines, advertisements, and other media depicting slim figured women, and men, with slogans that encourage weight loss and other standards of society and desirability. Through the decades, society has created and changed its standards for how a person “should” look, and what is considered “normal “and appealing. In today’s social regards, anyone who does not fit the mold is considered undesirable and an outcast. Even though in the current media there is more of a representation of different body types and disabilities, things such as “fat shaming” and unfair representation are still very much alive. “In this same primitive vein, culture tends to split bodies into good and …show more content…
“The female body is made of transparent plastic and lights up when you plug it in” (Atwood 133). This quote is an excellent metaphor to represent the lack of entitlement women feel in their own body. In the story Shrinking Women, by Lily Myers, it presents that the main character’s mother was shrinking and becoming a shadow of her former self. “Nights I hear her creep down to eat plain yogurt in the dark, a fugitive stealing calories to which she does not feel entitled” (Myers 156). Her mother felt ashamed of her figure and felt as if she did not deserve to enjoy high calorie foods, thus by not eating well she began to grow thinner and thinner and eventually passed those habits to her daughter. In this instance, if we continue to allow the social standards for women, to stay the way they are, we will pass down to the next generation that the only way to be beautiful is being exactly like everyone else. Individuality will cease to exist. It is through this connection that I have come to realize body imaging is also connected to mental health. People who are in a constant battle with self-loathing and shame because of their bodies are at a higher risk of developing eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. “I want to say: we come from differences, Jonas, you’ve been taught to grow out. I have been taught to grow in” (Myers
With every corner you turn, you are bombarded with magazines, advertisements, and other media depicting slim figured women, and men, with slogans that encourage weight loss and other standards of society and desirability. Through the decades, society has created and changed its standards for how a person “should” look, and what is considered “normal “and appealing. In today’s social regards, anyone who does not fit the mold is considered undesirable and an outcast. Even though in the current media there is more of a representation of different body types and disabilities, things such as “fat shaming” and unfair representation are still very much alive. “In this same primitive vein, culture tends to split bodies into good and …show more content…
“The female body is made of transparent plastic and lights up when you plug it in” (Atwood 133). This quote is an excellent metaphor to represent the lack of entitlement women feel in their own body. In the story Shrinking Women, by Lily Myers, it presents that the main character’s mother was shrinking and becoming a shadow of her former self. “Nights I hear her creep down to eat plain yogurt in the dark, a fugitive stealing calories to which she does not feel entitled” (Myers 156). Her mother felt ashamed of her figure and felt as if she did not deserve to enjoy high calorie foods, thus by not eating well she began to grow thinner and thinner and eventually passed those habits to her daughter. In this instance, if we continue to allow the social standards for women, to stay the way they are, we will pass down to the next generation that the only way to be beautiful is being exactly like everyone else. Individuality will cease to exist. It is through this connection that I have come to realize body imaging is also connected to mental health. People who are in a constant battle with self-loathing and shame because of their bodies are at a higher risk of developing eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. “I want to say: we come from differences, Jonas, you’ve been taught to grow out. I have been taught to grow in” (Myers