Thoughts and Feelings

Bad Body Image Is Big Business

By Stacey Prussman

Everyday men and women of are inundated with images of what is considered perfection. The media, beauty, and diet industry want us to feel inadequate so we buy the products and the images. It seems harmless at first but what has happened is that our self esteem gets chipped away without our conscious mind even realizing it. Science and technology have invented products and procedures that could whiten teeth in an hour and clear wrinkles up during lunchtime. It is a dream come true and nightmare all rolled up into one. The beauty industry is 60 billion dollar + industry.

We live in a society that praises makeovers not just our homes but our bodies. We are losing our sense of identity and our individuality as we strive for an ideal of perfection created for us so companies could sell us products. Girls as young as 15 are having their breast augmented while they have their nose shortened. It common place in our society for a 9 year old to diet. When are we thin enough, handsome enough, rich enough, “good” enough? Even aging has become something to avoid at all costs. Since when did a laugh line become a flaw? How if we are born or acquire a disability in our lives? Than what becomes of our body image? How if we are from another culture or minority in our community? How do find self acceptance in a society that seems to only want to show us our inadequacies? Body image goes deeper than being too big, too small, attractive or unattractive. It digs deep into our core and inner world. Having a bad body image could stop you from living your life … literally.

We are constantly being sold brands and logos that give us “status” if we own or wear them. I know women who have bought designer bags instead of paying the rent or buying food. One woman told me she said she felt better about herself because she owned this certain bag. Why? Is she now a better friend a better person? Does the bag have magical powers and now she could live rent free in her NYC apartment? It is seems totally absurd when I really broke it down but somewhere I understood. I remember back in my early teens I was in junior high school , I felt I had to buy certain brands of clothes. It would make me “cool ” , “popular”, “stylish”, but when my parent couldn’t afford to buy those brands I felt horrible about myself . It tore away at my self esteem all because I didn’t have a shirt that had “Ton Sur Ton” on it. I didn’t know better. I didn’t understand that I had value. It wasn’t just me, it was a big population of kids with those thoughts in my school. We were such a diverse group of teenagers with unique talents and backgrounds. Why were we so caught up in the stupid stuff? Where we prisoners of advertising? Bad parental guidance? Maybe our parents were prisoners too.

We are also shown through the media, society, and our culture what is defined as masculine and feminine. How if members of our own peer group or family criticize us for not having the “right body or not fitting “the mold”? How does that wear on our feeling of trust and self esteem? What happens to our self worth? What happens if we keep trying to change, fix alter, remake our bodies? Who do we become? How do we accept ourselves in a society that tries so hard to not let us? How do we give ourselves and our children the strength to see through all the crap and focus on the real value of who we are? I want to help create a world where we all learn to set our own personal standards and wish with all my heart those standards are filled with substance, acceptance, and love. If we don’t make peace and accept ourselves it hard to accept and have peace with others.