Who Defines Beauty?
Sarah D.’s “This I Believe” podcast
Who Defines Beauty?
I believe that every woman is beautiful, no matter what her size. I believe that is a woman believes that she is beautiful, society has no right to tell her she’s not. I believe that women should not have such crazy expectations put upon them.
Recently I saw a commercial where there was a very young girl who was saying things like, “You’re disgusting. You’re fat. Fatso.” And so on. Then the camera panned out to show that the young girl was standing in front of a mirror, speaking to herself. A statistic then came on the screen that said that 40% of all nine year old girls have dieted. I also recently saw a segment of a talk show, where a woman sat down with five 5-year-old girls and had cards with drawings of a big girl, and a skinny girl. The woman asked the girls questions like, “Who would you rather be friends with?” and all of the girls said the little one. When asked why, one girl answered, “Because she’s thin.” The woman asked another question, “Would you rather be fat or stupid?” and only 2 of the girls answered, “Fat.”
Society has engrained something in our minds that makes us believe that we’re not acceptable if we’re not thin. We see so many teenage girls who develop eating disorders, but their poor body image didn’t just develop in their teens; it’s a process fueled by images in magazines and on television of models, some of whose bones show through their skin. It doesn’t help seeing all of the fad diet advertising, or the weight loss headlines on the covers of magazines. Things to help people manage their weight, are not bad in and of themselves; but almost all of them are designed for adults. Actually, young girls look at them as much as their mothers do. Then, they get the notion in their mind that they always have to be thin, or they won’t be accepted.
Poor body image isn’t strictly for adults. It’s something that begins in childhood because of society. Instead of letting our young girls think that they always need to be stick thin, we need to promote positive body image, and teach them that they need to be healthy, but they’re beautiful no matter their size.
