Body Image Issues...Apparently Even Grandma Had Em...
You think only the women of today are driven to self-loathing because they are chasing some idealized version of ‘sexy’ that can only be created in Photoshop?
Think again.
Marketing the idea of a non-existent waist, upper legs that have never heard the word ‘cellulite’ and breasts that are both large and somehow filled with helium has been around for a long time. Think I’m making it up? Check out some Victorian prints sometime and observe the proportions of the women therein. I call bullshit.
But sometimes, the twisted perception that is Mega Marketing can be more subtle than that.
Observe:
It’s always interesting to see the ways that we are taught to think of ourselves as ‘too big’ or ‘not pretty enough’. I ask you, do you feel like any of the women in the ‘before’ images was overweight? Unattractive? In need of modification in order to be more readily consumable by the public?*
Madness. Lunacy. And yet it is a rabbit hole that every woman I know falls into - sometimes on a daily basis.
Knowledge is the first step toward change. I have to believe this because I don't want to go through my whole life fighting with myself about the nature of my body. And really, what the heck have either I or my body done to deserve that sort of distain?
*And without even getting into the whole, “where are the women of color” issue; I am aware of the time period that these were produced in and the answer to that question is already obvious, if not painful in its own ignorance.