The pressures of social media have caused serious turmoils–from movies, magazines and activities in everyday life, the strain to be perfect seems to be everywhere people look. It’s unavoidable and many individuals are finding it difficult to keep up with the higher expectations.
“I think for the ideal, it’s really hard even knowing to not have issues with body image, but still dealing with changes,” Sociology teacher Samantha Kaysinger said. “So I think people have to understand that throughout their life, they do go through many changes at all stages of their life, and in addition to that, really not focus on what their body looks like so much, because I don’t think there is an ideal for people. But being healthy and focusing more on how you feel and how your body is working for you than how it looks is so much more important. That is the ideal I think that we should strive for, but again, it’s easier to say that than do that, because we have many messages out there that kind of indicate that we should feel otherwise.”
Only 5 percent of women in the world naturally posses the “ideal” body type often portrayed by Americans in the media, which means for the other 95 percent, it is a constant battle to achieve an unattainable goal. Senior Morgan Snider feels that the pressures to be perfect have gone too far, especially in the cheerleading world.
“We often relate cheerleading with lean, flexible, ideal body type girls dancing around in short skirts which is not at all the true perception. Yes, we like to be uniform and look the same by dressing alike, wearing our hair and bows a certain way, but we have never gone to the extent that college cheerleaders go to. I’ve read articles about how they have to weigh in and meet a certain weight and if they go over, they will be kicked off. It is so insane that the cheerleaders have to sign a form stating what their look will be for the year and have to wear their hair a certain way all the time-professionally done-and they have to tan if they are not already. There is so much more that goes into it that people never see. It is crazy that people have this idea in their heads of what perfect is. And you find yourself wondering who made that ‘perfect’,” Snider said.
Women are not the only ones who are affected by the media. Men worry about the opinions of others too, and some take the drive to improve themselves overboard. 43 percent of men have reported to being dissatisfied with their bodies.
“If I were to be anything, I would have a perfectly clear face and [be] well built, but not like ripped or super skinny. And I’d want to be tan. I guess that’s kind of what most guys want to be like, but some guys have different perspectives. Some want to be super big and have a lot of muscles, but that’s just unattractive in my opinion. At a certain point it’s just too much,” senior Ryan Priesmeyer said.
Of course, the media plays a huge role in advertising body image, but even without it, it wouldn’t be gone. Looks are the first thing people notice and unfortunately, the only thing they can gather about a person before they decide to get to know them.
“In some situations in history, it was better for women to be more plump and to be extremely pale and even cultural standards of beauty are so different than what we see for example here. This is just our definition of what beauty and ideal image is, but I think we would all still want something. I think there would always be this norm or perimeter of what is the norm and what’s more exceptional. I think that’s kind of a natural human tendency is to categorize into norm, below norm and above average. I think we would strive for something there. Do I think that we would feel more comfortable with ourselves, though? Yeah, I do think we would without the excess media attention,” Kaysinger said.
People look and people judge. It’s just what happens. Two people meet each other for the first time and in a matter of seconds, they are already assessing each other and making mental notes. People are competitive and want to be the best, but at the same time they are looking to find their place.
“When we talk about symbolic interaction and general social dynamics, we look and we judge. Our brains are trying to process and categorize people so much that sometimes those judgements and prejudices get in there based on how we view individuals, so I think that’s largely what keeps people from engaging further with individuals based on how they look or based on a particular body image. I think also, though, some of that lack of interaction comes again from portrayals of, ‘This is what’s cool and this is what’s not,’ and you’re always striving to fit where you feel you fit in, but also mainly to kind of one-up that in a way. As shallow and superficial as that sounds, I think people do try to do that,” Kaysinger said.
Despite of what people think, being better looking will not make life better. It’s all about what they think of themselves. Happiness is determined by feeling at peace regardless of what others may say.
“It’s always that standard of better than what you are. The funny thing people also need to realize is people who are pretty and people who are beautiful or are what we consider perfect, their lives aren’t any better or happier for that necessarily. Those people that I see that are the happiest and actually come off well when it comes to personality and having the whole package are those who are striving to be healthy and who actually are okay with themselves and with their body image,” Kaysinger said.
Body Image is everywhere people look. With the media making appearance so important, it doesn’t take long for everyone to grasp what’s socially acceptable and what’s not.
“I think with increased access to mass media outlets, it makes [body image] seem more pervasive and prevalent. First, as a society and as a culture, we value appearances and materialism and being the best that you can be personally with what you have.      So I think that’s there and looking toward those for inspiration. I mean, why do we look at celebrities? To be like them and to want to be like them. I think it’s just that idea of the grass is greener on the other side sometimes. Like, ‘Oh, if I look like this, my problems will go away or I will have fewer problems,’ and it doesn’t help that there are psychological studies out there that kind of back that up and that prettier people over the course of their lifetime earn more money. They have different opportunities than those who have a more negative body image, and not just a self-perception, but an actual negative body image. Our society just naturally kind of promotes that and so I think knowing that or even not knowing that, just having that perception in the background, is always with people,” Kaysinger said.
Influences can come from anywhere. Education about the media and social norms can go a long way and help people to strive to be the best they can be on a healthy level.
“I think early socialization and how we approach body image for both males and females [plays a huge role along with the media]. My son hears me put myself down various times. He’s five and he early on picked up those images and ideas of what’s good and bad and right and wrong as far as body image. So it’s not just the media and I think educating people in school and through acceptance and through just at home as far as doing the best we can do to be healthy and that is the standard of ideal, and so striving for that is more important than this ideal image of perfection, because again if you look through the ages, these ideas of beauty and the perfect image have drastically changed even in supermodels and what is expected. And that’s really not the norm, so I think just that basic education has to occur and it’s really difficult as you get into those school years. I think as kids we always say, ‘Oh mom, oh dad, you’re gonna say I’m perfect no matter what,’ so I think it needs to come first at home, but then again it needs to be kind of a community-wide effort as well and to negate those images [and] to evaluate media and say, ‘Hey, this is out there. Maybe we can’t stop that, maybe we can. But if we can’t, how can we at least process it in a healthy way and deal with it and show you that this is not an accurate portrayal or representation of body image?’ So maybe those discussions even are more important than trying to make it go away, because I don’t know that it’s something that will go away,” Kaysinger said.
Being emotionally happy shows in appearance. Studies show that the people who are happy with themselves mentally are the most happy physically. It’s all about bettering oneself.
“I think the book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens really focuses on bettering yourself and I think the physical comes with that, but really it’s focusing on, ‘What do you want out of your life?’ You know, do you want this constant self-loathing hatred or feelings of imperfection? There’s a chapter in there about beating yourself up. What are you accomplishing by that? So I think definitely focusing on your principles and what you want to live by and what your future holds for you gives you something to work toward and therefore you’re already too busy focused on that and working toward that to worry so much about self image, but I think also for teens, having those conversations within groups, within classrooms, within advisories and looking at pieces of media and ask, ‘Is this reality?’ and ‘What is wrong with this image?’ Having those conversations is really important to kind of getting over that hump, but I would also encourage those who are feeling badly about themselves to think about those things we are born with and blessed with and about those things that we do have control over for example our general health and being healthy,” Kaysinger said.