Stop Making This Your Body Goal
Stop looking to places like social media or the fashion industry to measure your happiness.
By Allie Braun
“Skinny girls eat all the time but never overeat. Skinny girls work out but aren’t addicted to it.”
You see, they don’t have an obsessive personality obviously, so they don’t get addicted to things like exercise or food. That would be ridiculous.
“Skinny girls eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Skinny girls don’t fight stress with food” because they have healthy mental habits and always know when they’ve had too much of a good thing. They know how to handle stress in a way that is beneficial to their body.
You know, by peacefully doing yoga while listening to waterfall sounds.
"Skinny girls look good naked."
Obliviously, skinny girls just have their life together and are perfect. They have absolutely no problems, like ever. I mean, they are the ones who get to be the models, after all. They are the ones who show us how we should look in the clothing their companies are selling us.
They are the ones we should look up to. They are the ones who we should try to strive to look like. Because, by our societal definition, they look good no matter what they are wearing or well not wearing.
But the problem here is that it creates this mindset where a certain kind of person can be considered greater than other human beings. It forms this idea that there can be an ideal mold that people are supposed to fit into.
It says that if you are skinny enough, if you can become the ideal, you will have a great life. Automatically, just like that, your life becomes great. The thing is though that having a great life has to do with your attitude toward life, not your attitude toward food or the gym.
When is our culture going to stop idolizing skinny people? Just because you can fit into a size two doesn’t mean you have a great life, you have your life together, or you are going to be amazingly successful.
Skinny does not equal perfection.
People think things all the time like if I could only lose ten pounds then I would be perfect. Everything would be perfect if I could fit into that dress. The guys would be all over me if only I looked like her. And it’s just simply not like that.
Once you lose the ten pounds you are going to want to lose the next ten. And then the dress you wanted to fit into is too big for you and then what do you do?
Yeah, sure, maybe skinny girls get the attention of a couple more guys, but it’s typically not the kind of guys you want attention from.
When are we going to figure out that “diet culture” is toxic to everyone? It hurts everyone. It lowers self-esteem in every way imaginable for all different kinds of people and tells us we need to place value on something as objective as size or weight.
It tells us that not only do numbers define who we are but that the right or wrong number can tell your whole life story. But you know it’s all going to be okay because you have the power to change that story all you have to do is get to the right number.
How do you do that you ask? Well, you try this new diet which will let you drop 15 pounds in two weeks as well as cleanse your system so that you never gain weight again. I mean, come on.
Skinny is not the same as happy. In fact, the two shouldn’t even be connected.
You can be happy with yourself no matter what size clothing you wear. If you feel good and you have a healthy lifestyle that’s great, be happy with yourself.
Stop looking to places like social media or the fashion industry to measure your happiness.
I’m not saying that if you simply say you are a happy person you will be a happy person no matter what you look like or how you feel, but it’s definitely a start.
Allie Braun is a writer attending Furman University pursuing a degree in Sustainability Science. Her work focuses primarily on relationships, current events, and lifestyle topics.