A few weeks ago, the Victoria’s secret fashion show took place. On Twitter, I saw many tweets from girls about how much they wished that they looked like a certain model, and they tweeted about the drastic things that they would do for a body like those of the models’. Every year, my response to this is an eyeroll, but this year I felt differently. I felt upset and angry that, after seeing the show, girls criticized the “flaws” that their bodies had just because they didn’t match Adriana Lima’s body or Kendall Jenner’s. As I continued to think about it, I realized that it’s not just the Victoria’s Secret fashion show that causes girls to feel below society’s standards – it’s other things on social media, in commercials, and those depicted in ads. As women in society, we have added pressure. We have the pressure of so called “perfect bodies” surrounding us. I don’t think we go a day without seeing a picture of a body that men or other women feel is ideal and sexy. And it’s nearly impossible not to compare how I look in the mirror to a woman in an ad.
This pressure on women creates a lot of psychological mayhem. It is safe to say, at some point, every female can tell you that she has felt insecure in the way that she looks because of the way her body is different than a model’s body. The pressure to look “attractive” and “sexy” is constantly in the back of so many females’ minds.
I’ve always struggled with my body image. Since as long as I can remember, I’ve always hated how my abdomen looked. I can remember in elementary school being fixated on what body parts of mine I wanted to be skinnier. It wasn’t uncommon for me to ask my mom if I was fat, or to wear baggier shirts because I didn’t want my stomach to show. This issue has stuck with me since then, and continues to.
But the thing is, I’ve always been an extremely active girl. Working out at the gym is an outlet for me, and I go at least 4-5 times per week. I’m also conscious of what I eat, and, although I like to indulge, I try to keep things in moderation. I’m healthy, and I know this, but I still don’t feel good enough, lean enough, or attractive enough.
This issue is currently so pertinent in my life because, this past summer, I was in the best shape I had ever been in, in my life. I worked out so hard every single day, and I barely ate. And, for once in my life, I was actually happy with how I looked. I was happy with how I felt, and I was confident that I looked attractive.
Sadly, when I got to college, and school became a priority, I started to fall out of the shape I had been in. After all the stress eating, the crappy dining hall food, eating late at night, and possibly a little bit of beer pong, I gained five pounds. I realize that five pounds is nothing. I still fit in all of my same clothes; I look the same to everyone else but myself, and I can still crank out a thirty minute run on the treadmill, no problem. But I feel insecure, I feel less confident, and I do not feel attractive. After seeing all the tweets about the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, I put everything together. I feel personally affected by the media. I feel insecure because of the “perfect body” images that I see on a daily basis, especially because I know that I don’t look like that, even though I wish I did.
I want to live to see a change in this. I don’t want girls to grow up haunted over what they look like, to wonder if they’re fat, to wonder if they’re attractive. I want society to see women for their accomplishments, what makes them happy, and the struggles they overcome, not how sexy they look in a beer ad. While I continue to struggle with this, I stand against the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and any media that objectifies women, and I stand for seeing women as their mind, not their body.