there is music in the video though! it's the song raindrops by SNBRN ft. kerli so that makes it completely appropriate to post here. i am so good at justifying.
so buzzfeed (aka the-biggest-time-suck-on-the-internet, you go from pictures of the best man-buns to a quiz on which friends character you would be to a list of 90's facts and then your night is gone but i can't stop myself!) recently released a video that showed women's ideal body types throughout history. it's fascinating.
you watched it, right? good. even at my young (okay, relatively young. young enough.) age i've been influenced by three of these standards. i was born in the mid-80's so that "supermodel" mindset was probably well-etched into the brains of my mom and aunts. the 90's were my formative years where the "heroin chic" look was plastered all over television and magazines, as a pre-teen and teen those were THE source of knowing what was fashionable (because not wearing the "right" clothes in middle school is the ultimate crime). and the 2000's ideal body standard is what girls (myself included) have been attempting to achieve since i was in high school.
you'd think that by this point we would understand that the "it" body image is going to change as fast as flared-leg jeans are in one day and skinnies prevail the next and that maybe we should just be happy that we have a functioning body but that's easier said than done.
as much as i would like to complain about the fashion industry folding to body image standards and only making clothes that fit the mold of the moment, or complain about how all of the models in advertisements and magazines look the same conditioning our brains to think that that's the perfect way to look i'd wager a guess that the answer to why we feel the need to look a certain way mostly lies within ourselves.
we're self-absorbed and insecure. we feel that if we look a certain way we will be accepted and maybe even praised. we want our selfie to look the best and get the most likes. we disguise it as "being healthy" when it's actually an obsession. the digital age we live in is a blessing and a curse. we carry around devices in our pockets and purses that keep us connected to basically anything or anyone on the planet and can do so in an instant but those same devices can crush our self-worth. in an article jon foreman wrote (yes, i can find a way to fit him into literally every conversation, it's one of my spiritual gifts) he said, "if comparison is the thief of joy, then our culture is being robbed blind."
maybe if we stopped being so focused on ourselves we'd stop caring so much what other people think. there are so many bigger issues than thigh gap...human trafficking, homelessness, hunger, genocide, and cyclical poverty to name a few.
so stop chasing an ever-changing beauty ideal because you can't keep up with that crap anyway. maybe your natural thinness was perfect for 90's but now your booty just doesn't measure up. here's the thing: if you're basing your value on someone else's opinion of you, you will always come up short changed.
you're beautiful and you're loved. instead of worrying about changing your pant size, work to change the world.
and post a couple less selfies.
xo
No comments:
Post a Comment