I am frustrated, so frustrated it lead me here. For a nation with one of the highest rates of obesity the US really has a morally f*cked up view on body image. Of course the skinny-minis you see in magazines are unavoidable but that is something that I think slowly as a human race we are becoming numb to. The new up and coming self-esteem crushing techniques actually comes to us courtesy of the “health” community. This self-esteem crushing community hides itself with a façade under the title of “motivation”. As the 20th century continues to spit out new and improved ways of sharing content over the Internet, an industry has bloomed. The term fitspiration is now wildly known and practiced. Pictures of thin/ripped/fit/big-bottomed girls are thrown around the Internet, but unlike the magazines that just advertise the cloths they wear, they are often fed to us with “inspiring” quotes or “how-to’s”. Now this may seem harmless, even helpful, but this maked the average person think that it’s their own fault for not looking like the picture because according to “them” it’s all possible! Now don’t get me wrong I am not hating on the few individuals who are posting reasonable diet plans, healthy meal ideas or the occasional workout. But among the few truly helpful people there is a sea of those who merely throw us images of beautiful bodies day after day giving us the distorted idea that we are part of a minority, that there are millions of hot to trot bodies out there out-numbering us. Also, with the magazines we know that these models are living off of celery and water, but with these new fitspiration stars we are being duped into feeling crappy about ourselves because we have the occasional fat-filled meal instead of eating like rabbits, don’t spend hours upon hours in the gym and naturally have a slower metabolism. This leads girls to try and find shortcuts to those gapped thighs that are being advertised to us, which has inadvertently led to the spike in the percentage of people with eating disorders.
Now I know I am sitting here bashing those instagram/twitter/facebook pages that go under the category of #fitspiration, but it was only 2-3 days ago I unfollowed all those accounts on my instagram, because so matter how many people tell us its wrong, we don’t want to let go of the idea of a “perfect me”. For a long time I believed that these images were a tool I needed to get there. Now I’m not saying that by doing my best to remove that content from my daily life that I am suddenly okay with my belly fat and lack of a thigh gap. Because I am still sick, and it’s going to take time before I can look in the mirror and notice that my hair looked good today rather than scowl at the pudgy body that only I can see. But removing that “motivational” content is taking me one step closer to recovery.
Now I know I am sitting here bashing those instagram/twitter/facebook pages that go under the category of #fitspiration, but it was only 2-3 days ago I unfollowed all those accounts on my instagram, because so matter how many people tell us its wrong, we don’t want to let go of the idea of a “perfect me”. For a long time I believed that these images were a tool I needed to get there. Now I’m not saying that by doing my best to remove that content from my daily life that I am suddenly okay with my belly fat and lack of a thigh gap. Because I am still sick, and it’s going to take time before I can look in the mirror and notice that my hair looked good today rather than scowl at the pudgy body that only I can see. But removing that “motivational” content is taking me one step closer to recovery.