Hello! Now this is a slightly different post to anything I've ever posted before, which can be a little nerve-racking as I don't know if it will be something you lovelies will approve of. But I hope it is! After reading an article in 'Look' magazine I found out that the average woman goes on 104 diets in a lifetime. Now if this is the average then there must be women who go on more diets than 104 which I find quite startling.
The article talked about Kim Cattrall, who played Samantha in Sex and The City, admitted she had been on a diet since 1974, that is 39 years! Now that's longer than my lifetime so far! As women why do we have such poor body image that we feel the need to diet so long? And deprive us of food and things we could possibly enjoy because we're too absorbed in this idea of the perfect body. I mean I know a lot of us would love to look like some sort of Victoria's Secret model.
Some of us just aren't made to look like this and if we all did there would be another sort of extremity we'd all be going to so that we could get a different body that we would deem as 'perfect'. Okay so we diet to get our idea of a good body image so we can exude confidence. Sometimes this isn't the case, our ideal body changes and dieting can get so extreme that it can lead to eating disorders. Yet the media still constantly talks about dieting as some type of glamorous affair. Dieting isn't the major problem I mean it is perfectly normal to diet to become healthier and more toned.
Personally I believe that more should be done to prevent girls from feeling so negatively about their bodies. Obviously we all have a body but our opinions vary on the perfect body or how we would like our body to look. Girls as young as ten are worried about their weight. Plus half of teenagers would consider surgery to change their appearance. What does that say about us as a society? I know that when I was ten, weight certainly wasn't one of my worries. Okay I didn't want to be overweight but I would never have considered dieting. If girls as young as ten are considering dieting, what are we telling them to make them feel this way? Or is it just everything on the TV? I mean we may not think children at the age of ten are paying much attention to the weight of that girl on the telly. But obviously they are and for a ten year old to feel that way, there is obviously more influence than just some girl on the telly. Is being skinny mistakenly being mixed up with being 'pretty'? I'm a firm believer in that everyone is beautiful, some people may not believe this but even if you're not beautiful to them, I guarantee you will be to someone else so we shouldn't let this crush our confidence. When you look at yourself in the mirror you are more likely to notice flaws in your appearance, or find insecurities. Once you've noticed these insecurities your eyes are drawn to them and subconsciously we work ourselves up about these insecurities. Believing they're way more noticeable than they are. Sometimes people compliment your figure and maybe at that time we will say thank you and feel flattered but it's soon forgotten. But if someone criticizes your appearance, it sticks in your mind and you always think about it, wondering if other people around you notice it. Why is this? Why can't a compliment stay with us and make us feel confident?
Many of you may have heard of the Dove real beauty campaign, I've found a few photos of the campaign if you haven't heard of it.
As I previously said there should be more campaigns about this or we should put more money into schemes like this. Not only should we use these at secondary schools, but at primary schools as well after the statistic I found earlier. If we teach children from a young age to be confident and to love their body and the skin they're in, maybe we could lower the amount of eating disorders and other problems. People may believe money should be put elsewhere but I even would say the government should inject money into these schemes. Treating an eating disorder will last a long time and cost the NHS money and other body related issues are also paid for by the NHS so putting money into a scheme would probably save money in the future and also stop the negativity between girls and create a more positive outlook on women in society.
I know this post is very opinionated and I'm terribly sorry if any of my views have offended anyone, I honestly would hate to do that.
Thank you for reading. Please comment if you like more personal posts like this and if you would like me to do any more in the future, along with my normal posts of course. Lots of love as always xxx
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Or you can email me: callieeemay@gmail.com
