Girls and our bodies
It's commonly known that no woman is entirely happy with her body 100% of the time. Well I suppose one or two may exist in the world but let’s face it they are few and far between. I admit I am lucky enough not to have a perfect body but to be happy with it most of the time. That’s MOST, which is far ALL.
What I really want to think about in this post however is not how we should all embrace the figures we naturally have more etc etc (which of course we should) but where this dislike of our bodies is coming from. The popular modern answer seems to be “from the media”. This is an argument that has obvious strengths, in the modern world we are bombarded by images of perfect looking models that possess chests of impossibly perfect size, waists that are gorgeously narrow and derrières that are just… perfect! We inevitably compare these perfect perfect forms to our own and (because evolution in it’s great providence has made us all uniquely) find that we do not match up. To compare what we have with what someone else has is human nature, I did it first thing this morning while still wrapped in my duvet as I looked out of my window and contrasted what my garden looked like covered in snow with what my neighbours’ gardens did. The results were in my favour J.
Anyway, my point is, perhaps it’s not the media’s fault. Is it in our nature to be self critical? If we didn’t care or know what anyone else’s body was like would we still look in the mirror and think, it would be great if my tummy protruded slightly less? Perhaps we are born with a sense of what’s a beautiful body and we’re born thinking its not ours. After all, I know when my garden looks beautiful covered in snow and I don’t see snow covered gardens everyday in the media.
Well there’s some food for thought. Must dash, I have a hot date with Jesus and some rugged-looking disciples in my bed!
Want a translation? I’m a big fan off the BBC’s short series “The Passion” which covers the last week of Jesus’ life and I’m about to watch on BBC iPlayer on my laptop snuggled up warm in bed. It’s an excellent series and I would recommend you head over to BBC iPlayer now but, sadly it will probably be taken off by the time you read this, sorry (but it's worth a try!).
I have to say, at various points in my life I’ve seen a few of these types films but this is by far the best, I’ve done so much thinking about Jesus this Easter that I’m truly shocking myself. Kudos to the guy who plays Jesus in it, it’s an incredible performance. However what I really like about this drama though is that it makes you see the side of the traditional Easter story baddies, the Jewish and Roman authorities who put him to death, in many ways you sympathize with them. Anyways this was supposed to be a girly post not a religious film review… I may do that in another entry though, as I said it really is a very good film.
I totally agree that although people like to blame the media for the
obsession girls (and some guys) have with their bodies, I think that it is
part of the natural self-criticism of our brains. If we weren't
self-critical, then we would never learn from mistakes and evolution
couldn't take place, so maybe comparing ourselves to other people is part
of the competitive desire to be The Best, that everyone has... maybe?