It’s such bullshit that society has created an environment where we are afraid of our bodies.
Girls (and guys) are constantly worrying and criticizing themselves (or others) about being too fat, too skinny, not curvy enough, not athletic enough, not muscular enough, not tall enough, they’re facial features aren’t right, not sexy enough, too sexy etc etc etc.
People are literally afraid to look, accept, come to terms with or explore their own bodies. They obsess about it or they are too sad/anxious/scared to even think about their own bodies and in turn, completely try to ignore it (all the while, mostly likely, still having those feelings about it)
Everyone just seems to have such a HIGH misconception about what defines the categories/what they mean (fat, skinny, curvy, athletic, healthy etc). Somehow clothing size, numbers on the scale, skin poking out of places, the way the fat on your body sits, lines in the skin, hair (or none) on the skin can have bad or good connotations.
People “feel fat” for wearing a size or large or weighing a 150 pounds. People think they’re too skinny if they always have to buy a size xsm or weigh 100 pounds. More than likely it’s what’s normal FOR YOUR BODY. Who stopped teaching about bodies and our anatomy?
People actually feel GUILTY for eating certain foods because of how it will effect the physical shape of their body. They worry about how many calories are in something, or how much fat. I don’t think that most people have any idea of how calories work with our bodies and how it’s different for different bodies as well. They just see a number and freak out. (Though, I feel like I understand it if it’s from a healthy via ingredients view..as in processed/chemical foods.. yes I realize this is kind of hypocritical of me because this is the thing I worry about… working on it)
And we’re also to blame for taking these ideas and using them to talk down about ourselves (And others). We fat shame ourselves, we skinny shame other people, we “feel”? fat! (HOW IS THAT A THING), we’re not feminine looking enough, we’re not masculine enough, we don’t look old enough or young enough, we want bigger lips, we look like crap today, we wanna get rid of these thunder thighs, we wish all the food we ate went to our boobs..etc etc. we tweet and tumbl and facebook about it, we say it our friends in passing. And I feel like the majority of us realize that it’s all bullcrap. We give the media shit for it, yet we continue to do all this to ourselves.
And I am definitely part of it! I used to have no idea what I was talking about when I was a young teenager, and just easily believed the ideas and schemas the media set out for me. I didn’t understand calories, scale numbers, pant sizes, what that extra big of fat was doing there, what it wasn’t doing here. I fell for it and believed that they had bad meanings and criticized and felt unhappy about myself for it. Now that I know better, I generally do try and stop myself from it cause I know it not only ingrains improper ideas into my head, but also ingrains it into the heads of people who see and hear it, it makes it sound OK when it’s not. But… a lot of the times I don’t stop myself. There’s something about pointing out your insecurities before anyone else does that seems relieving. (even if your insecurities are not true thoughts or, don’t actually matter to people).
Anyway! I just always feel so sad and frustrated when I see people feeling bad about themselves for any of the reasons I just talked about because I don’t know if they truly know how normal, fine, OK, they are and good they actually look.
I need to practice more body love for sure. I also write and rant like a high school kid. If I handed this into a University prof I’d get like a 40%
(oops. there I went again being self negative)
