I have been going to an
early morning gym in the pursuit of fitness and fat loss. Not weight loss, mind
you, there lies the ‘wrong attitude’ I understand. Fat is the enemy which I
guess means the slow loss of weight I am experiencing is acceptable if rather
demotivating. Whilst searching for the right gym for me, I scrolled through
many Facebook posts from personal trainers showing the before and after shots
of their clients. I decided these were not the trainers for me and shared my
horror at the idea to a friend who asked why I cared what others thought. She
was right, of course, my discomfort was as much about what others might think
as it was about wanting to get fit. So why do we care?
Consider this context for
many girls and women that form a view of how they should look based on some else’s view of perfection. Wikipedia
defines one reason for a woman seeking Labiaplasty as driven by the ‘wish to alter the
appearance of their genitals because they believe they do not fall within a
normal range’. A normal range?! Who decided on a normal range that would see a
woman, some as young as 14 according to one report, seek surgery.
Search for the term thigh gap and page after page
of exercise tips will pop up assuming that it is essential for the perfect
woman. It was mentioned on Naked Attraction, a Channel 4 programme loosely
based on a dating concept where all participants are naked. Their bodies are
viewed and commented upon as though meat in a butchers. Referring to the women,
whose faces were still obscured, the presenter commented on how ‘clean’ they
all were because they had shaved off their pubic hair.
These are powerful messages that are trying to
tell women how they should look. The implication, it appears, is that failure
to comply is to be subnormal, dirty, not perfect. Is it any wonder that body
image is such a driver of anxiety and depression when the concept of perfect
ignores the reality of being us, of being unique.
If you would like to know more about me and how I work therapeutically please click through here.
