2008 Woodie Awards
How To: Love your body no matter what
Crash Course
Rachel Feinberg
Issue date: 10/16/07 Section: Life
How many times have you looked in the mirror and wished there was something different about your body? Your hair is too brown, your eyes are too small, you are too fat, or your breasts aren't large enough…
It doesn't seem to matter how beautiful you are, because it seems that in today's society when the media portrays beauty in a certain way and you don't conform to its standards, something is wrong with you.
The media is wrong. According to the television, movies, and magazines, being a certain body type or image is attractive. The CIA estimates that there are over 6 billion people in the world, and only a handful of those people are the supermodels that seem to define our perception of beauty. Too many people think they are ugly or overweight because they don't look a certain way.
The average American woman is a size 12 and weighs 140 pounds! With the way fashion is portrayed to us with airbrushed models, no wonder four out of five American women say they are dissatisfied with the way they look.
Forget the media - you are beautiful just the way you are!
There is a movement called "Love Your Body Day" aiming at telling people that we should love our bodies no matter what. Ditch the ideas of liposuction and plastic surgery. Stop starving yourself to lose that last eight pounds.
Yes, it is important to exercise and watch what we eat, but we shouldn't kill ourselves to fit a certain image. Every one of us is built differently. Yes, there are health factors associated with being overweight, but medical researchers at Imperial College in London have recently released the results of a study showing that overweight people who participate in moderate activity are actually healthier than their thin, sedentary counterparts. Some people are genetically predisposed to be thinner, some will be a bit heavier. Who cares what we look like as long as we're healthy and happy?
"It's just sad for such a diverse society to try to fit into that image," says Tammy Kravitz, a junior. "Women and men need to feel comfortable with who they are and what they look like, as long as they stay healthy".
It doesn't seem to matter how beautiful you are, because it seems that in today's society when the media portrays beauty in a certain way and you don't conform to its standards, something is wrong with you.
The media is wrong. According to the television, movies, and magazines, being a certain body type or image is attractive. The CIA estimates that there are over 6 billion people in the world, and only a handful of those people are the supermodels that seem to define our perception of beauty. Too many people think they are ugly or overweight because they don't look a certain way.
The average American woman is a size 12 and weighs 140 pounds! With the way fashion is portrayed to us with airbrushed models, no wonder four out of five American women say they are dissatisfied with the way they look.
Forget the media - you are beautiful just the way you are!
There is a movement called "Love Your Body Day" aiming at telling people that we should love our bodies no matter what. Ditch the ideas of liposuction and plastic surgery. Stop starving yourself to lose that last eight pounds.
Yes, it is important to exercise and watch what we eat, but we shouldn't kill ourselves to fit a certain image. Every one of us is built differently. Yes, there are health factors associated with being overweight, but medical researchers at Imperial College in London have recently released the results of a study showing that overweight people who participate in moderate activity are actually healthier than their thin, sedentary counterparts. Some people are genetically predisposed to be thinner, some will be a bit heavier. Who cares what we look like as long as we're healthy and happy?
"It's just sad for such a diverse society to try to fit into that image," says Tammy Kravitz, a junior. "Women and men need to feel comfortable with who they are and what they look like, as long as they stay healthy".
Be the first to comment on this story