A couple weeks ago, I wrote a blog about Gerren Taylor and her modeling career coming to a halt at 14 years old because the fashion industry said she was too big to model designers’ clothing. As a result, Gerren Taylor became depressed, developed an eating disorder, and stated she was ‘ugly’.
I am very passionate about many things, a few of my passions I have written about like my blog on Gerren Taylor, but I have never done a follow-up to my own blog until now. I have to admit, to me Gerren’s story is quite intriguing (and I don’t mean that in a good way), and because of what she went through at such an early age, I wanted the world to know that Gerren Taylor’s tale is just one of million women and girls tales everyday who are criticized by the way they look by someone else, and because of it suffer from body image problems.
So this is why I am writing again on this issue.
I was talking with a young girl who was 13 years old, and she told me that she was not beautiful. I asked her why did she think that, and she told me because she did not look like the girls on television or just her friends in general. Again I asked her why (hoping she would tell me) and she began pointing out what she thought were flaws:
“I have a big forehead, I have bumps on my face, I have a big stomach so I am fat, and my feet are ugly. Plus, everyone that I talked with about how I look agrees with me.”
I tried to reassure her that she was beautiful and that if everyone looked the same, life would be so boring. While I continued to share positive things to her, she simply rolled her eyes, huffed a little, and said, “Okay Keisha, thanks for trying to make me feel better, but I feel the way I feel and you can’t change that.”
What we have to realize first is it is okay to be beautiful—everyone is beautiful, so that’s not the issue. The issue is when people (yes, I mean all of us) began placing a stigma on what is beautiful, it weeds out those who do not meet the criteria of having characteristics that are considered to be beautiful. That’s the problem. Just look around you regardless what state, city, county, or country you’re in. Women that are ‘very slim’ are deemed more attractive and appealing to the eye, and women who are curvier are considered unattractive and unappealing. The media, among other things, has created these beautiful images that we see everywhere (which by the way, are NOT real and a computer program is to credit for making someone look flawless), which have led people to feel and believe if they don’t look like that, they are ugly and something MUST be fixed so they too can be beautiful. If you’re wondering what effects it has on women, check out these alarming body image statistics, according to Ezine@rticles:
- Seven out of ten women felt depressed and angry when they had seen pictures of thin female fashion models.
- When asked, two out of five women specified that they would gladly give up 3 -5 years of their lives, if they could just reach their ideal weight goals
- In the United States, approximately 7 million girls and women experience eating disorders.
- When asked, 51% of girls aged 9-10 stated when asked that they did feel better about themselves when they were on a diet.
- 80% of all the women who were asked stated that they were dissatisfied with their own appearance.
- Approximately 88% of all the girls interviewed admitted that they do feel a need to “look perfect”
While it’s very disturbing to read about women having body image issues, it’s even more troubling to know that girls, even younger than 9-years-old, according to some statistics, are having the same issues with their appearance. Their bodies haven’t even reached puberty, and yet girls are destroying their bodies at such an early age?
If we want to change the negative stigma associated with body image, we must continue to address this issue. It’s affecting women and girls every day. As advocates for changing how girls and women feel about themselves, we can promote positive body image by encouraging individuals to love and appreciate who they are, exactly as they are. This can be accomplished through attending body image workshops in your local areas, creating documentaries promoting positive body image, developing seminars in order to discuss this problem, or simply making sure to tell the girls and women in your life that they are beautiful and encouraging them not to buy into media’s images.
There are so many ways that we can raise awareness about this issue, so please don’t ignore your opportunity to help someone. Whether you believe it or not, this is a crisis that is destroying women and girls physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially, and we must put a stop to it once and for all.