Adela Campos
According to the National Eating Disorders website, body image is how one sees themselves when they look in a mirror or when they picture themselves in their minds. This encompasses how a person sees their body in terms of their height, weight, shape, memories, and generalizations. There are two types of body images, which are positive body images and negative images.
An example of a person with a positive body image of
themselves is a person who has a realistic and true perceptions of their body.
This type of person embraces their appearance from aspects such as their
weight, height, and body type. People with a positive body image tend to be
more confident with themselves and understand that appearance doesn’t determine
the value of a person. People with a positive body image tend to be more "comfortable in their skin." On the contrary, people with a negative body image are
on the opposite side of the spectrum. These people tend to have very distorted views of their appearance, particularly when it comes to their weight and body shape. They have very unrealistic views of their body and see themselves as an exaggerated weight compared to their realistic weight. These people tend to feel ashamed of their appearance and believe that their appearance reflects who they are as a person.
As reported by the Do Something website, 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape. It is also stated that about 58% of college-aged women feel the obligation to be at a certain weight. A really astonishing fact is that only 10% of the women who have body issue concerns will seek professional help for how the feel. These are all concerning numbers when it comes to the women that are affected. Although the stigma towards body image problems seem to lean towards women, it isn't limited to only the female gender. Many men are also affected by this problem. The Breaking Muscle magazine states that 17% of men are on extreme diets. It is also mentioned that 3% of men binge eat and 4% of men purge after eating. Although the statistics aren't as alarming in comparison to the female statistics, this is still an issue that does not discriminate and affects both men and women of a variety of ages.
This issue is very important to me because I feel that a great deal of women, girls, men, and boys alike are affected by this issue. Although my personal experiences aren't near as severe as some of these cases that I've read about, I still feel personally affected by this issue to a certain extent. For the most part I am content with my body and accept myself with who I am. Granted, I would like to be a few pounds lighter and more in shape, but I don't feel like I have a distorted view. Sometimes I have days where I feel fine, but there are other days when I do feel like I should lose a little bit of weight and look more fit. It's completely normal to have days like this every now and then. When I feel this way I read uplifting articles and watch workout videos to help me feel motivated. One of the reasons I feel that this is such an important issue is because we live in a society that focuses so much on the media and appearances. I don't know any people who suffer to this extent, but there are people who truly have a negative body image and see it as a burden. Many people of both genders are afraid to speak on this issue. I believe that there should be more accessible help and resources so they have somebody to talk to. It is so important to have uplifting people and accessibility to education that teaches us to accept ourselves for who we are and that we are all beautiful in our own individual way.
This issue is very important to me because I feel that a great deal of women, girls, men, and boys alike are affected by this issue. Although my personal experiences aren't near as severe as some of these cases that I've read about, I still feel personally affected by this issue to a certain extent. For the most part I am content with my body and accept myself with who I am. Granted, I would like to be a few pounds lighter and more in shape, but I don't feel like I have a distorted view. Sometimes I have days where I feel fine, but there are other days when I do feel like I should lose a little bit of weight and look more fit. It's completely normal to have days like this every now and then. When I feel this way I read uplifting articles and watch workout videos to help me feel motivated. One of the reasons I feel that this is such an important issue is because we live in a society that focuses so much on the media and appearances. I don't know any people who suffer to this extent, but there are people who truly have a negative body image and see it as a burden. Many people of both genders are afraid to speak on this issue. I believe that there should be more accessible help and resources so they have somebody to talk to. It is so important to have uplifting people and accessibility to education that teaches us to accept ourselves for who we are and that we are all beautiful in our own individual way.
These are some of the people in our community who felt that body image is an important issue in our society:
Jacqueline Robles
Kevin Morales
Alexandrea Bell
Jaime Campos
Works Cited
11 Facts About Body Image. (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2016, from https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-body-image
Larsen, A. (n.d.). The Modern Male and Body Image: It's Okay to Talk About It. Retrieved November 24, 2016, from https://breakingmuscle.com/learn/the-modern-male-and-body-image-its-okay-to-talk-about-it
What is Body Image? (n.d.). Retrieved November 24, 2016, from https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/what-body-image
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