Thinspiration

In this generation, there is a growing need and desire for approval from the people around us, our peers: everyone knows the pressure of fitting in and being what others want us to be. Looking the way they want you to look, saying what they want you to say, and questioning yourself before every move you make: never fully being comfortable to be yourself. One of the biggest flaws in a person is insecurity. When you are a person who is insecure you constantly doubt yourself, and think of every little thing you say and do. In a way you torture yourself by the judgment you place on your own shoulders. Why do people care so much about what others think? Furthermore why do people feel they have the right to judge anyone?

Almost every person would agree that we are all in some way brain washed to think a certain way. We are told everyday what to buy, what to wear, and what to believe. The media is at the center of our society: it has the biggest influence on our everyday lives. The media constantly puts images and messages in our faces. It shows us what beautiful is suppose to be according to them. To the media beauty is actresses and models: the pictures of women and men posted all over magazines. These women are usually skinny, with good hair, and the latest clothes. The men are handsome with fit bodies. A message that is constantly drilled into our minds in these photos and magazines is to be pretty, thin, wealthy, and powerful is to be happy. The sad thing is we, the consumers of products like these, eat up everything we are told. We see these pictures and think that’s what beauty is and that’s what I want to be. We look at the people around us and wonder why they don’t look like these plastic perfect people. We strive to look the same. We buy the make up they wear and style our hair the same way to please the eyes of society.

Another way of describing fitting in is changing yourself so that you are no longer and individual: to not standing out, or be special. Original, different, rare, these are all synonyms for individual and that is not what the media wants to sell to us. One of the biggest ways a person tries to fit in is by looking the way others want you to. Women everywhere are put under the most pressure to be perfect. Women aren’t suppose to fart or burp, instead we are suppose to look pretty and clean the house. Some women spend half their lives trying to be the ideal. Being skinny and fit is the biggest enemy to any woman who enjoys her food. Being fat is simply unacceptable to most people. To be fat shows you have no control. Being overweight may not be a healthy choice, but again who are we to judge how someone lives his or her life? What is upsetting is some people’s perception of fat. Some people actually think a girl wearing size four jeans should lose a few pounds. Not just women, but young teenagers feel the pressure of having to be thin. As a result many young girls and older women starve themselves in order to lose weight. Thinspiration websites tell these women not only to starve themselves, but also to be anorexic. To get so skinny that their bones are sticking out. Women everywhere are dying from bulimia and anorexia. The ones who survive strive to help others like them get healthy again. These websites are a danger to the females in this world.

Losing weight is just one more way of changing yourself to make others happy. Some say they want to look that way to make themselves happy, but why does being that size make you happy? Is it because others think you look good? Truth is the only reason you like being thin is because over time we have been told being small is attractive. What if the media told everyone being curvy and even chubby is what is appealing? My thought is over time our own opinions would change and therefore our views of others and ourselves. We would soon think weighing a little more is alluring. Sadly there are millions of people with eating disorders who wake up in the morning and have almost no strength. These people can barely move, and they are never happy because they are emotionally unstable and can only see themselves as fat, ugly, and worthless.

The media tries to warp our minds through commercials when they show young pretty people always happy. One of the most talked about incidents for commercial discrimination is when ABC and Fox network refused to show a Lane Bryant commercial featuring fuller sized women in lingerie. The networks released a statement saying the commercial was too revealing, yet everyday there is a Victoria’s Secret commercial playing with skinny women in skimpy lingerie and that is considered appropriate.

People want so badly to be the ideal look, that they not only starve themselves, but they pay to be cosmetically altered. Cosmetic Plastic Surgery has only dropped 2 percent since the economy has gone down. Almost 10 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed in the United States in 2009. Women had 91 percent of these cosmetic procedures. Even though people have been struggling through financial problems, they somehow found a way to spend thousands of dollars on being nipped and tucked. The things women do to improve there looks could be as small as shaving there legs and arm pits, waxing there eyebrows and lip hair, putting on makeup, getting there nails done, getting a tan, whitening there teeth, and dying there hair. Or they could be as severe as botox, liposuction, face-lifts, breast augmentation and many more. Laser hair removal has also become a big fad for women, because we should never have hair unless it’s on our head, and we should also always have smooth skin.

There is so much pressure for girls to be thin and beautiful that it is close to impossible for women to reach these standards. These pressures stem from the medias idea of perfection and what is expected of impressionable girls.