In the 1960's, Time magazine had a woman on the front who would now be considered "plus sized," saying that it was a good thing to have your thighs touching, or to have more "curves." Somewhere along the way, this idea got lost in a flurry of "pro-ana" (pro anorexia) and "pro-mia" (pro bulimia) blog posts, pictures, and mindsets. Thinspiration suddenly became popular, encouraging girls to choose between a snack or a thigh gap, a sweet or hip bones sticking out. This media is most prominent on the social networking site Tumblr, but it's making its way across the board.
Girls (also boys, but less so) are constantly being barraged by this type of positivity about eating disorders or disordered eating, and are often falling victim to it. Up to 20 million women and 10 million men will be diagnosed with an eating disorder. There is an innate pressure to be thin these days, to have your hipbones and collarbones sticking out and to have a thigh gap (which is only possible in girls with certain body shapes).
Sure, people change with the times, but this change in the ideal body type is causing deaths all across the nation. Perhaps it's time for a new change, that promotes self-love and body acceptance, instead of constantly feeling the need to change.
I have three friends who developed these disorders in high school, two became anorexic and one was bulimic. What was surprising to me is when I talked to them about this subject very recently only one of them said they did because they felt pressured to lose weight the other two said it was a coping mechanism for a lack of attention. But I feel that the lack of attention they feel is because their bodies do not match the impossibilities of contemporary advertisers and so they are not given attention by the guys around them. And there's this quote on tumblr, "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels," and thats just bullshit honestly.
ReplyDeleteThis ideal beauty image that media has created can be very damaging to our societies young girls. Eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, and other means of self-harm are a serious problem facing millions of teenagers. The need to be extremely skinny is just one aspect needed in order to fit into the narrow beauty standard of today. Marilyn Monroe, a major sex symbol of the 1950’s and 1960’s, would be considered overweight by today’s beauty standards. Young girls are starving themselves to try to look like all the women they see portrayed in the media. But the women in these magazines that these girls try to replicate are unrealistic. With increasing technology, media is representing nothing less than perfection with the help of photoshopping images. These representations distributed through the media need to change for the health of our generation.
ReplyDeleterecently I heard about how "thigh gap" is a thing. Of course, some girls (or women) are just built that way, but I am 105 lbs and my thighs touch. no women should be put down because of her size (small or big) but telling girls that there needs to be a gap between their thighs to be attractive is a huge issue.
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