‘I feel fat’
Body image may be one of the most controversial subjects among women and a growing number of men.
According to an eating disorder statistic from the National Center for Health Statistics, over a person’s lifetime, at least 50,000 people will die as a direct effect of eating disorders. A rather disturbing statistic, but I understand how it’s possible.
The number of people suffering from eating disorders in the United States alone seems astronomical. But being a young adult growing up in an age where body image is critiqued by everyone, I can see how the numbers keep growing.
Although I wouldn’t consider myself to be one suffering from an eating disorder, I admit I do have issues with body image. I refuse to wear certain articles of clothing because I think they make me look fat. When shopping with my girlfriends, it can take an entire afternoon to find one thing that makes one of us comfortable with our bodies.
For example, I was shopping with one of my girlfriends for jeans because she insisted she was getting too fat for any she had at home.
We went to every store in the mall and she tried on every possible pair and ended up leaving the mall with a pair of sweat pants because she felt comfortable in them. She made a vow to herself that she would go home and throw away all her junk food, workout and wait to buy jeans until she had lost 15 pounds.
Shopping isn’t the only place where body image is put on a pedestal; it also arises when getting ready to go out with friends.
Some nights I can try on what seems like a million outfits and feel fat in every one of them. I will try my hardest to convince myself that going out in sweatpants isn’t the best idea and I end up throwing on a hoodie or something baggy and comfortable.
I think the drive to have the perfect little body is accentuated through the media.
Girls want to look like the beautiful woman prancing around in her tiny outfit on television, and guys want to look like the buff, shirtless stud.
One of my friends watches movies and makes comments such as, “If I had a personal trainer telling me how to workout and how to eat, I would look like that too.”
Although I think it’s unhealthy to compare my body to what I consider the ideal body, I think it’s OK to have an ultimate body goal.
I have a friend who will tear out pictures of women with her ideal body and tape them on her door so she sees that image everyday. Apparently, it helps her stay away from the junk food and enforces a healthy lifestyle for her.
I know issues with body image will never go away, but I think the issue would be less painful without hurtful comments people make.
Some comments aren’t meant to be hurtful, but words affect people differently and what one person may consider a joke, to another person the words may be taken seriously.