On Body Image

Christie L., 15, St. Paul’s Convent

        Being skinny has already been a trend in the modern-day society. From teenage young ladies to middle-age women, keeping fit has already been a long-life goal to work for. Everyone thinks that skinny means beauty. They think that being skinny makes them feel confident and successful. Why is being skinny a trend for women (or even men) to achieve? One of the reasons is those models in the fashion shows or fashion magazines looked really skinny, and publishers try to build up a “skinny means beautiful” image and it influenced the way that people look towards health and beauty.

        Looking back in history, ancient people, especially Chinese, thought that being fat meant that the person was born in a wealthy family and they were brought up well. Fat also meant fortune. People thought that being fat meant the person was fortunate. Ancient wealthy or middle class people like to find a fat woman as a wife because they thought that fat women could act like a female pig by giving birth to a dozen babies! Lady Yang Yuhuan is a good example. According to the history, she was one of the four most beautiful ladies in Chinese history. She was described as a very fat woman, but she was the lady that the emperor Tang loved most. This shows that fat people were more favourable in history. So why has this thinking changed?

        Throughout thousands of years, people thought that being fat was great. However, in today’s society, people finally realized that being fat is not a good thing, but that being healthy is the best. Later on in this century, models are asked to be skinny and tall, magazines, pop stars, and actors help build the image that skinny means beautiful. Eventually, those photos made women think that being skinny is most important though it might look uneven. This idea made people lose weight with different methods such as taking pills that may be forbidden, joining some courses that promised to help you to lose weight with a certain period of time, etc. There may be harmful effects of taking these products but these people are willing to risk their lives in order to change into a “model” body.

        Advertisements are some of the most important factors that influence people about body image. They make images look uneven as they think that skinny is more important than uneven proportions. Also, the phrase “skinny equals beautiful has already been their objective. When there are tons of these advertisements lying around, people will be influenced by the ads and agree with skinny equals beautiful. Then, they forget what is the standard of being healthy and start to go for the trip to maek themselves skinny. When advertisements lie everywhere, from the streets to your house (leaflets), from magazines to TV, it is difficult to not be influenced. Then, once your friends are influenced, the conversation you hear may also include body image and eventually you become seriously influenced.

        To conclude, the power of advertising is enormous. We should be careful about the information we perceive and choose the truth. We should not follow the trend of society. Being healthy, not skinny, is best.