Body Image and how it affects you

I have contemplated the effects of body image in America. Body shaming should be the more appropriate phrase to use for the sake of this blog and my own opinion. From when you can walk in America, you are taught to be ideal. You have to have rock hard abs, you have to have less than 10% body fat, and if you do not, then American Media will poison you with shame.

The fitness industry stands testament to the effects of the marketing of ideal body image. You see commercials that show exercise equipment and always have people pour their souls in testimonies. A before image is often used to show unhappy people in unhappy situations that felt that they wanted to change. This change is often achieved by using repetition of certain exercises and the strict "healthy diet". This is in a country in which processed foods rule the country with lobbyists bribing senators to keep their chemical laced foods legal.

It is funny that body image has taken such a sharp turn over the decades to the profit of various markets. During the 1970's, the ideal body image was to be of "slender" build and foods were no where nearly as toxic to consumption as they are today. To achieve this slender build, a person became dedicated to the four food groups and aerobic exercise. Growing up during the 80's and 90's, this "look" remained easy to achieve for the average citizen.

During the 90's however,  the shift in marketing strategies changed and with it, body shaming was clearly more evident. As processed foods came on the rise, obesity in America also rose. The medical industry also rose in profits with treatment for diabetes type two, and high blood pressure. The food is more toxic, and yet Americans are "expected" to be healthy by controlling portions and choices.

Body shaming now affects men as well as women even more now than it ever has in the past century. If a man is not of at least an "athletic" or "muscular" build, he is often over looked as a viable choice for attractiveness. A man's sense of worth is now just as vulnerable from youth as a woman's when it comes to how you appear to people. The common factor here is that if a man doesn't lift weights, he isn't deemed as "strong" or even masculine.

I would not dare say that it is right for only women to have these problems. I would say however, that as a society, we should not be so quick to judge people based upon this social conditioning that has poisoned our way of viewing others since times past. Why can't we just teach people that they need to look behind the cover? If appearance is all you are looking for, then all you need to do is search for thirst traps on Instagram and Facebook. People who find their only means of validation, showing off their bodies to appease a void that they themselves cannot fill.

Love is the obvious answer. But too many people are focusing on too many external elements to fill the void of what is missing within themselves. You have to learn how to love who you are without any need of outside validation before you can realize what love actually is. If you cannot love a person's flaws, how are you going to love the rest? How can you expect to be loved by anyone if you can't accept flaws as part of the person as a whole? Unconditional love has no barriers to actually stop it. If you can't love unconditionally, then you already love only under ideal conditions.

-Q-