Body Image

People are bombarded with messages about how they 'should' look and what kind of person they 'should' be. Trying to meet these expectations drains our time, energy and the contents of our wallets! When we find it's impossible to look the way we're told we should look, we can find ourselves thinking "I look terrible".

This article is about freeing yourself from the tape measures, calorie counters and endless hours of weight lifting. It has tips to help you see there is way more to you than just your thighs, waist and butt!

What is body image?

Think of all the times you have said or heard things like, "I'm fat", "I'm too skinny", "My thighs are too big", "I've got a big butt", "My legs are too short", or "How embarrassing, I'm hairy."

This is how many people see themselves. Body image is the mental picture we have about the way we think we look. It's how we feel about the size, shape, weight, and look of our bodies.

Problems with body image affect men and women. Most people face it at some stage of their life.

• Men face pressure to tone-up, muscle-up and look big, strong and tanned.

• Women face pressure to slim-down, tone-down and look petite and small.

Body size and shape

You will be the right size and shape for you, if you....

Eat healthy food, eg. lots of fruit and veggies.
Be active - exercise three times a week for more than half an hour, eg. aerobics, kick-boxing, rock-climbing, surfing, scuba-diving, walking the dog.
You can still have an occasional indulgence, like chocolate cake......

Our body shape is already decided before we are born. Each one of us is a unique human being with our own genes from our mum and dad. There is only one person in the world shaped like you. Dieting does not change body shape. The distribution of weight on your body is going to stay the same - so learn to love who you are.

There are many ideas about what the words 'fat' and 'thin' mean.

Being 'fat' (obesity) has come to be seen as more than just a physical condition. Being fat is often be linked in our minds with things like being lazy, greedy, unfeminine, having a personal problem, being unhappy or being aggressive.
Being 'thin', on the other hand, is more likely to be viewed as normal and associated with being happy, successful, good, strong-willed, feminine or masculine, or confident.
Being too thin is also recognised as a problem that can arise when someone does not eat enough to keep them at their ideal weight.
What names have you heard people called? What other things are told to people when they're named 'fat' or 'thin'? How might this affect how they see themselves as people?

The fashion brigade!

We live in a culture with multi-million dollar fashion and cosmetic industries that make lots of money by telling people they need to improve the way they look. We're surrounded with messages in ads, magazines, movies, bill-boards, fashion shows, hairdressing salons... all telling us that we desperately need their products!

Daytime and late night TV are good examples - the ads specifically target people's insecurities about the way they look, and promise quick fixes. By making people feel bad about the way they are, the ads aim to get people to buy products that they probably don't need.

For more on this, check out our topic Media pressure.

So that face cream didn't turn you into a movie star? That exercise contraption didn't give you biceps like Hercules? The acne cream didn't make your skin as smooth as a baby's bum? That diet didn’t change your whole body shape?

When these things don't work, we blame ourselves and think we're failures, we're not disciplined enough, or we are downright bad.