Beauty standards and how to ignore them

When you think of the 'ideal body', what do you imagine? The majority of the society will think of small waists, big hips and large bosoms. However, this is completely incorrect. In this article I will reveal what the media have been hiding from you, and how to stop caring about the judgement we receive from everyone else.

In the 1920's, the 'ideal' body had no curves whatsoever, and in the 1940's, woman with broad shoulders were worshipped. Not to mention that in the 1980's, the taller you were the better chances you had to appeal to others. While today, shorter woman are often favoured by their preferred genders eyes. This is just a small example of how broadly body ideals have changed overtime.

These altering views lead onto my first reason as to why beauty standards are a myth to keep us at bay. They are forever converting and swapping with each other. The fact that they can change so much within such a short amount of time, proves that there is no such thing as a solid, perfect body image. You may be confused about what I am putting forward here, let me explain it.

It has been stated many times that there is no possible way to come up with a correct and accepted definition of right and wrong. If you look it up, it will most likely say something along the lines of, 'morally acceptable' and 'immoral'. But these meanings are, once again, wrong. Due to the differences in culture, religion and upbringing, people have a huge variety of moral compasses. Therefore, one group of people could normalise stealing, and think of it as a completely perfect part of life, however another group could think it is punishable by death. This means that there is no correct definition for either right or wrong, it all depends on the majority.

This is exactly the same for body standards. There is no true 'perfect' body. What you have seen put forward by the media, is just what the majority are liking at that specific time. This is why it is constantly changing, hence the reason very few manage to conform to it without putting themselves through mental and physical pain.

Social media plays a big part in warping our view of ourselves and others. It promotes certain looks or beauty types, then cleverly advertises products which will claim to help you look like the current trend. (Products such as waist trainers or press on abs), or the latest fitness regime. This leads to people spending all of their money on things they don't need, which will be out of season by the time they take effect, if they ever do.

The worst thing about all this is that it is affecting younger and younger people. Due to parents allowing their children technology and access to social media at earlier times in their life, they are experiencing beauty standards and what others expect of them, before they even get into the real world. They then spend their parents money on unnecessary things, and start growing up years before their time. Doubtless, this is extremely damaging for current and future generations. It needs to be stopped.

In my opinion, there is only one way this can be done, and great progress has already been made towards it. Now, the media decides what is the 'perfect' body, by seeing what is currently the most trending, and from there, that is how they alter all of their marketing. So, in order to dismantle this poisonous way of being, we need to embrace the fact that if everyone on the Earth exercised and ate exactly the same, we would all still have different body types. Long story short, we need to get rid of majorities.

I'm not saying we need to abolish everyone who has the current 'perfect' body, that is not what this is about. It is about creating such a widespread love for all body types, that there is no body or beauty type that the majority are aiming for. We need to make it so that the media is forced to market within all body and beauty types, so that there is no one group which is placed above the other.

By doing this, it will make it easier for minorities to embrace themselves, as they will see more of people who look like them being advertised and marketed as beautiful. The truth is, we are all beautiful regardless of clothing, bra or penis size. Our views of body image and the myth of 'beauty standards' have been so distorted by what has been presented to us, that we are stuck in an endless loop of shame and pride, with no winners.

My final advice to you, unless someone is morbidly obese or skinny, unless you are genuinely worried for their health, embrace their looks and your own. Compliment people and yourself, it gives you a confident glow and will only make people more drawn to you, but that is not why we are doing this. We are doing this to allow everyone to feel included and worthy of the love of others, and to stop feeling pressure to look a certain way. Buy the products you want to make you feel happier, not what society wants you to spend money on. Your perfect body, is a healthy, content one, not a stressed and hurtful one.

My hope is, that if we manage to create such a diverse beauty standard, that people will be able to actually live, instead of existing only to please society. My name is Jo Wallis, and I hope this article was able to enlighten your ways of thinking, and help you on your journey to self love.

Have a most wonderful day,

Jo :)

photo source= https://www.teads.com/teads-unveils-new-research-for-beauty-marketers/