As a result of this week, body image has been largely on my mind. I had an interesting conversation with my brother's friend about body image and more specifically what the world and media shows women and men what they need to look like to be considered beautiful or attractive. He presented the idea that he is against the movement of promoting people to feel happy with how their body is because it causes them to become complacent and lazy. He continued to explain that the high standard of beauty and how one's body is portrayed in the media is a good thing because it pushes people to work harder to obtain a healthier lifestyle.
While I believe that it is important to progress and always work to become a better person, I did not agree with my friend on what he had said. To me, this extreme standard of how a woman's body should look can be very inhibiting and even dangerous in some cases as girls especially struggle with different kinds of eating disorders or mental health problems. He felt that the idea to be comfortable with who you are promoted unhealthy living where people stop caring about how they look and eat excessive amounts of junk food. OF COURSE I BELIEVE THAT WE SHOULD EAT HEALTHY. DUH. But I don't believe an extreme standard of being skinny or curvy in just the right spots promotes healthiness either. Of course it can. Just like promoting comfort with one's body type can promote healthy lifestyle choices as well. The standard does not need to be "eat whatever you want and be happy" nor "eat nothing and be happy" but instead "eat healthy and be happy with whatever you are given as a result of being healthy." That was a long sentence, but I hope readers understand what I'm trying to say.
Beauty is all around us and encompasses so many different aspects. I believe strongly that it comes from within and that we all have beauty within us. As Dr. Coyne said, "You are not your body." Those words are so true.
