Are you falling into society's
trap of 'beauty'.editorial
Self Image
Do you ever walk up to a mirror, turn side-ways and look at how skinny your waist is? Or do you spend almost an hour trying to perfect your hair and make-up? Do you ever see your friends and think to yourself, “why can’t I look like them”? Well I’m telling you now, you don’t need to look for, or even think about these things.
Society has publically made known its definition of ‘beauty’. A young girl with the perfect tan, flawless make-up, skinny as a twig and photo shopped to make her look even more, well… fake! This goal of ‘beauty’ is unreachable even for the models in the photos we all desire to look like. How are we as young, teenage girls supposed to reach this standard if the models themselves can’t even reach it? It’s a bit outrageous but it’s true. Young girls are doing everything they can to achieve this image of ‘beauty’ and their health and self-esteem are paying the price.
Girls are starving themselves, missing meals and under-eating so they become skinnier. But what they don’t realise is that they are doing the exact opposite. If your body is not being fed the amount that it is supposed to be, then your body goes into survival mode. This means that when you stop eating, your body will think that it will not be fed for a while. Your body basically tries as hard as it can to keep every calorie and every single bit of fat in your body. This survival mode also doesn’t help because most of us humans would give in and then binge because we are hungry after not eating for a while, which then puts on more fat and defeats the initial purpose entirely! Basically what I am trying to say is watch out for fad diets. There is a difference between eating healthily and not eating at all, and it is a big one! Your body needs the nutrients that food provides as they are changed into the energy that you need to go on with your day-to-day life. Instead of eating barely anything, eat a regular amount of healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables, meats and a small amount of carbohydrates. These sorts of foods will keep you feeling satisfied without making it seem like you are filling up your body with more fat.
So many of the models we aspire to look like are unhealthy. Twenty years ago, most models weighed around 8 per cent less than the average woman. Today, this statistic has increased to around 23 percent less! Plus-sized models are now considered to be in-between the sizes of 6 and 14. These are scary statistics as it is showing that the image of ‘beauty’ is never going to be reached by anyone.
Women these days also think that they have to cake their faces in make-up because their natural face just doesn’t make the cut for ‘beautiful’. This is a horrifying message that society is sending to young women because it is basically saying that they are not pretty until they cover up and alter their appearance.
Now I seem pretty hypocritical right now, as I have fallen into both of these traps myself. I have thought numerous times that I am not skinny enough or that I look really ugly without make-up. But I also trust that God has made me in his good and perfect image. I now know that I don’t have to be super concerned about the way that I look or act around other people because God has created me to look the way I do, and I can be thankful for that. Genesis 1:27 says: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Now I don’t know about you, but to know that the God of the universe created me in his own image and likeness, is a pretty big deal! God loves me no matter how I look because I am a child of God, and so are you.
I am not saying that you can’t wear make-up or try to make yourself look nice ever, but I am saying that it doesn’t need to be overdone. Sure I wear make-up, but I don’t wear so much that it becomes as obvious as a massive black dot on a white piece of paper! It’s alright to look nice, but what I want you to know, is that you don’t have to reach this impossible worldly standard of beauty, because you are even more beautiful in God’s heavenly eyes.
Society has publically made known its definition of ‘beauty’. A young girl with the perfect tan, flawless make-up, skinny as a twig and photo shopped to make her look even more, well… fake! This goal of ‘beauty’ is unreachable even for the models in the photos we all desire to look like. How are we as young, teenage girls supposed to reach this standard if the models themselves can’t even reach it? It’s a bit outrageous but it’s true. Young girls are doing everything they can to achieve this image of ‘beauty’ and their health and self-esteem are paying the price.
Girls are starving themselves, missing meals and under-eating so they become skinnier. But what they don’t realise is that they are doing the exact opposite. If your body is not being fed the amount that it is supposed to be, then your body goes into survival mode. This means that when you stop eating, your body will think that it will not be fed for a while. Your body basically tries as hard as it can to keep every calorie and every single bit of fat in your body. This survival mode also doesn’t help because most of us humans would give in and then binge because we are hungry after not eating for a while, which then puts on more fat and defeats the initial purpose entirely! Basically what I am trying to say is watch out for fad diets. There is a difference between eating healthily and not eating at all, and it is a big one! Your body needs the nutrients that food provides as they are changed into the energy that you need to go on with your day-to-day life. Instead of eating barely anything, eat a regular amount of healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables, meats and a small amount of carbohydrates. These sorts of foods will keep you feeling satisfied without making it seem like you are filling up your body with more fat.
So many of the models we aspire to look like are unhealthy. Twenty years ago, most models weighed around 8 per cent less than the average woman. Today, this statistic has increased to around 23 percent less! Plus-sized models are now considered to be in-between the sizes of 6 and 14. These are scary statistics as it is showing that the image of ‘beauty’ is never going to be reached by anyone.
Women these days also think that they have to cake their faces in make-up because their natural face just doesn’t make the cut for ‘beautiful’. This is a horrifying message that society is sending to young women because it is basically saying that they are not pretty until they cover up and alter their appearance.
Now I seem pretty hypocritical right now, as I have fallen into both of these traps myself. I have thought numerous times that I am not skinny enough or that I look really ugly without make-up. But I also trust that God has made me in his good and perfect image. I now know that I don’t have to be super concerned about the way that I look or act around other people because God has created me to look the way I do, and I can be thankful for that. Genesis 1:27 says: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Now I don’t know about you, but to know that the God of the universe created me in his own image and likeness, is a pretty big deal! God loves me no matter how I look because I am a child of God, and so are you.
I am not saying that you can’t wear make-up or try to make yourself look nice ever, but I am saying that it doesn’t need to be overdone. Sure I wear make-up, but I don’t wear so much that it becomes as obvious as a massive black dot on a white piece of paper! It’s alright to look nice, but what I want you to know, is that you don’t have to reach this impossible worldly standard of beauty, because you are even more beautiful in God’s heavenly eyes.