Body image, a learner’s perspective
Mar 24, 2020
By Cassandra Chua, Nexus Year 9
With the advent of social media and rise of beauty gurus, girls as young as nine years old start to feel insecure about their own bodies. Thick thighs, bushy brows, too-shiny skin... the complaints never cease.
And we ask the question: “But, why?”
Nowadays, people are exposed to many beautiful women who enhance their good looks with skincare, makeup and/or surgery and then they show it off to the world. We are bombarded with photos and footages of these attractive people from breakfast time to bedtime. As humans, it comes naturally for us to compare ourselves with them and we would obviously start to notice flaws in our appearance.
Is this a fair comparison? I don’t think so.
If all bodies had the same size, the same shape, the same colour, how would we be different to robots? Everyone has differences of their own, including in appearances but the people we see online invest huge amounts of time, money and energy into looking as similar as possible to the media-approved beauty standard. Many of them even edit their own photos and use filters. At this point, it’s not fair and not practical to compare ourselves with them.
Solution? We need to stop fretting and start taking action. Stop listening to the voices, including the one sounding from your own lips, that tell you “you are ugly” or “you are fat”. Stop comparing yourself with other people when working towards a goal, but rather with yourself from yesterday. This is sure to work more effectively and allow you to feel happier.
Something else you can practice is to think about your body on a scale of health, not the public eye, and treat your body accordingly. As the famous saying goes, as long as you are healthy and content, youth and happiness will shine from within.
Happy International Women’s Day!
With the advent of social media and rise of beauty gurus, girls as young as nine years old start to feel insecure about their own bodies. Thick thighs, bushy brows, too-shiny skin... the complaints never cease.
And we ask the question: “But, why?”
Nowadays, people are exposed to many beautiful women who enhance their good looks with skincare, makeup and/or surgery and then they show it off to the world. We are bombarded with photos and footages of these attractive people from breakfast time to bedtime. As humans, it comes naturally for us to compare ourselves with them and we would obviously start to notice flaws in our appearance.
Is this a fair comparison? I don’t think so.
If all bodies had the same size, the same shape, the same colour, how would we be different to robots? Everyone has differences of their own, including in appearances but the people we see online invest huge amounts of time, money and energy into looking as similar as possible to the media-approved beauty standard. Many of them even edit their own photos and use filters. At this point, it’s not fair and not practical to compare ourselves with them.
Solution? We need to stop fretting and start taking action. Stop listening to the voices, including the one sounding from your own lips, that tell you “you are ugly” or “you are fat”. Stop comparing yourself with other people when working towards a goal, but rather with yourself from yesterday. This is sure to work more effectively and allow you to feel happier.
Something else you can practice is to think about your body on a scale of health, not the public eye, and treat your body accordingly. As the famous saying goes, as long as you are healthy and content, youth and happiness will shine from within.
Happy International Women’s Day!
