Body Image - I Blame Society

"Becoming the new feminine ideal requires just the right combination of insecurity, exercise, bulimia, and surgery." - G.B. Trudeau

"Every woman knows that, regardless of all her other achievements, she is a failure if she is not beautiful." - Germaine Greer

All women struggle with the concept of body image.  We are constantly looking for things to change (or that we wish we could change) in order to become thinner, prettier, sexier.  And until we can achieve at least one of these ideals, we are never going to be happy with ourselves.  Confidence is one of the most endearing traits a girl can possess.  But it's hard to be confident in your image when you feel so far away from the ideal that society has set - the foundation from which all judgment stems.  We try to obtain that ideal body image through natural approaches at first - eating healthy, exercising daily, portion control.  But sometimes it seems like you work so hard for such a minuscule turnaround.  We work out beyond the point of exhaustion - we push ourselves so hard that it becomes difficult to muster up the energy to continue as the days progress.  We practically starve ourselves until the day when we break from frustration and indulge in every fattening food we can lay our hands on, drowning our sorrows in the thing that is one of the primary causes of that sorrow in the first place.  So then we feel guilty and go back to beating ourselves up at the gym.  But the results always seem to stay the same - static progress.  So you begin thinking it's impossible to get that image that sits so clearly in your mind - at least not without some sort of intervention.  So we turn to the weight loss supplements and substances, we enhance our workout performance even more with metabolism boosters.  And sometimes, if we're really desperate enough, we may just cut off the parts we don't want, or artificially enhance the parts that we think need to be more pronounced.  We just want to be admired, to feel confident and strong, to look good and sexy in our own skin, to not be ashamed of our bodies and self-conscious showing them to others (or even to ourselves).  Why does that have to be such a hard thing to accomplish?  But an even better question is why does that have to be all that matters?  Why is that the basis of beauty?  A beautiful face does not necessarily reflect a beautiful mind.  A sexy body does not necessarily reflect a sexy soul.  Personality comes from what's inside.  Intelligence, altruism, affection, compassion, creativity, rationality, generosity...all of these things come from within.  No one is perfect.  We all have flaws.  Don't let society make you a slave to its standards.