AmbulanceIsLate
03-14-2010, 11:47 PM
This is a generalization, so nobody please get offended because it doesn't fit you to a t.
Also this is focusing on girls, simply because my experience is as a girl, and primarily with girls.
As a whole, girls and women have fairly poor body image.
Not thin enough, not curvy enough, not blonde enough, not tall enough. My feet are too big, my butt's too flat, my breasts are too big. Whatever.
Girls are always comparing themselves to other girls (I'm guilty as charged, I can't help it). Before anyone says 'Just don't compare yourself to another girl', I want to say, I can't help it, I do it without realizing it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I feel makeup and most fashion is to impress other girls, not boys their interested in. Usually boys couldn't care less about how much mascara you're wearing or where you bought your jeans. Only other girls are gonna notice that.
So they compare themselves to other girls "Jenny's dating Charlie and Charlie broke up with me for Jenny, what does she have that I don't? She's skinnier than me and her hair is shinier than mine and she can afford things I can't, that makes her better than me"
No. Just, no.
And modeling: Very very very few people are that skinny and healthy.
Things like that, it seems like everything tries to make girls feel poorly about themselves. (Sometimes to make them buy a specific product.)
I believe that lesbians, or honest bisexuals, will have a better body image.
Now, there's no study to support this, so don't go asking me how I got my information.
That's not to say we don't still compare ourselves to other girls. We do. All the time. Of course we do. But instead of always looking at the farfetched girls (models, are one of the worst). I think, at least for myself, I tend to compare myself more to the girls I'm attracted to. They don't tend to be the super thin super pretty girls. I like curvy girls. I'm a curvy girl. Then it's not so belittling. Your average straight girl compares herself to the picture perfect girls that look like mannequins ("Why am I a size 10, not a size 0"). And I think that affects their psyches more. Again, just for me, but I think when I compare to a girl I'm attracted to, it's more realistic. It tends to be something like 'just go to the gym and tone up your legs' not 'drop fifty pounds'.
If this makes sense to anyone other than me, I look at girls like a girl (Because I am a girl). AND I look at girls like a boy (Because I like to look at girls). So there's a broader range of people I compare myself to instead of just what the media throws at us, and what is 'accepted and expected'.
This isn't so much of a debate. But what do you think? Am I totally off my rocker?
Also this is focusing on girls, simply because my experience is as a girl, and primarily with girls.
As a whole, girls and women have fairly poor body image.
Not thin enough, not curvy enough, not blonde enough, not tall enough. My feet are too big, my butt's too flat, my breasts are too big. Whatever.
Girls are always comparing themselves to other girls (I'm guilty as charged, I can't help it). Before anyone says 'Just don't compare yourself to another girl', I want to say, I can't help it, I do it without realizing it, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
I feel makeup and most fashion is to impress other girls, not boys their interested in. Usually boys couldn't care less about how much mascara you're wearing or where you bought your jeans. Only other girls are gonna notice that.
So they compare themselves to other girls "Jenny's dating Charlie and Charlie broke up with me for Jenny, what does she have that I don't? She's skinnier than me and her hair is shinier than mine and she can afford things I can't, that makes her better than me"
No. Just, no.
And modeling: Very very very few people are that skinny and healthy.
Things like that, it seems like everything tries to make girls feel poorly about themselves. (Sometimes to make them buy a specific product.)
I believe that lesbians, or honest bisexuals, will have a better body image.
Now, there's no study to support this, so don't go asking me how I got my information.
That's not to say we don't still compare ourselves to other girls. We do. All the time. Of course we do. But instead of always looking at the farfetched girls (models, are one of the worst). I think, at least for myself, I tend to compare myself more to the girls I'm attracted to. They don't tend to be the super thin super pretty girls. I like curvy girls. I'm a curvy girl. Then it's not so belittling. Your average straight girl compares herself to the picture perfect girls that look like mannequins ("Why am I a size 10, not a size 0"). And I think that affects their psyches more. Again, just for me, but I think when I compare to a girl I'm attracted to, it's more realistic. It tends to be something like 'just go to the gym and tone up your legs' not 'drop fifty pounds'.
If this makes sense to anyone other than me, I look at girls like a girl (Because I am a girl). AND I look at girls like a boy (Because I like to look at girls). So there's a broader range of people I compare myself to instead of just what the media throws at us, and what is 'accepted and expected'.
This isn't so much of a debate. But what do you think? Am I totally off my rocker?