Women, Body Image and The Media

Your body image is the collective thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that you have about your own body; how you compare these ideas about your body image to that of others; and how you imagine that others feel about your body. If you have a positive body image you generally feel good about the appearance of your body. If you are overly critical of the image of your body or have strong feelings of hate, anger, or disappointment about your body this is typically referred to as having a negative body image.

Your body image begins to develop early in life in relation to how family members, friends, teachers, doctors, your community, and the mainstream media reflect back to you how they feel about your body in comparison to others. The first thing doctors do when you are taken from the comfort of your mother’s womb is measure the length of your body and weigh you to determine if your height and weight range is “normal.” In some form or fashion, your body size will be compared to others for the rest of your life.

The evolution of beauty in terms of the comparison of physical attractiveness between humans is a byproduct of a surplus of goods and resources and massive amounts of free time that led to gender inequality between men and women. When men and women truly needed and depended upon each other for survival, it didn’t matter what the other person looked like.

Once humans became domesticated and they no longer needed to spend their time seeking shelter and food; they had the free time to create beauty. They had the luxury of carving beautiful designs on their bows. Beauty evolved from the reality of living in the moment; to the illusion of creating perfection in the future.