Photoshop me
Body image is something we all have to deal with. Some of us are lucky to be dealt a lucky hand with good genetics. Some of us have to work hard to look the way we want. Negative body image can take a toll on your self-esteem. It can cause you to be depressed and induce self hatred.
Skinny Bitches
I just wish sometimes that fashion magazines would just be banned. I've seen so many girls and young women complain that they don't look like the girl on the cover. They probably never will. That girl on the cover is a size 0 or an incredibly poplar, highly paid movie star. I think using the covers for motivation is awesome but it's not healthy to starve yourself or go on a crash diet to look good for your high school reunion. The stats on eating disorders, diets, and the media are staggering when it comes to women and their bodies. Here are some awesome articles that have the stats:
Fitness models.
I know a few fitness models. What makes them different from you and me are that they are PAID to look good. If all I had to do to get paid was to workout every day and eat clean I would be on the box of Calvin Klein underwear. Fitness models starve themselves before a shoot and then after all that working out and starving they are airbrushed to hell to hide the flaws. Flaws that we all have. Fitness and fashion magazines are unrealistic ideals of how women and men should look. To be a female model a girl must be at least 5'9" and a size 0 or a size 1. How many women are a 0 or a 1? Not many. Men need to be at least 6'0" and no more than 10% body fat. When you pick up a VOGUE or a MEN'S FITNESS just know that those people are not the norm. It is great if you want to be inspired by them or use them for motivation but don't have unrealistic expectations that you will look just like them. Everyone has different genetics and your body is yours and no one else's.
Body image isn't just for women any more.
Men are becoming more and more negative about their body image. Straight men AND gay men.
Here are a couple great article with statistics on body image and men.
Class is in session:
If you think body image is bad for women, here is something that not everyone knows about body image in the gay world.
Gay 101:
Like the rest of the world, the gay community or as I like to call it the "gayniverse" is obsessed with youth and beauty. I think it may be worse for gay men. Gay men are constantly bombarded with images of perfect looking men at every turn. It's everywhere they go. The pressure to have six pack abs and buff biceps is incredibly intense. Marketing for gay men basically consists of six pack abs on the cover of, well, anything, from underwear to gym memberships. There is a phrase known to gay men: age 30 is 60 in gay years. Once you turn 30 it's all down hill from there. UNLESS you look good, extremely good. Depending on what city you live in you are judged solely on what you look like and what your body fat % is.
Gar Bar 101: NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART
To illustrate one insane example of what gay men go through is the gay bar. Those of you who have never been in a gay bar have never experienced vanity, ego, or as you will now find out, jaw dropping "must see TV" to this extent.
"Must See TV"- I bet if you go into your neighborhood straight bar you don't see porn on tv screens everywhere, do you? Well in SOME gay bars, gay porn is shown as casually as if you are just sitting around watching a re-run of FRIENDS. It's just there. You can't help but see it unless you turn your back to it and then there is another tv pointed at you with more porn. You almost can't get away from it. I've never understood how displaying gay porn is perfectly ok to do in a gay bar but straight porn would NEVER be displayed in a straight bar. Gay porn stars are some of the most attractive men you will ever see. They are the standard that gay men feel they have to live up to. Gay Pride parades have porn star floats. I don't get it and I never will. I don't attend Gay Pride parades mainly for reasons like that.
"Must See TV"- I bet if you go into your neighborhood straight bar you don't see porn on tv screens everywhere, do you? Well in SOME gay bars, gay porn is shown as casually as if you are just sitting around watching a re-run of FRIENDS. It's just there. You can't help but see it unless you turn your back to it and then there is another tv pointed at you with more porn. You almost can't get away from it. I've never understood how displaying gay porn is perfectly ok to do in a gay bar but straight porn would NEVER be displayed in a straight bar. Gay porn stars are some of the most attractive men you will ever see. They are the standard that gay men feel they have to live up to. Gay Pride parades have porn star floats. I don't get it and I never will. I don't attend Gay Pride parades mainly for reasons like that.
Don't get me wrong. I like to go out with friends and enjoy a drink and maybe some dancing from time to time. It's still tough. If a bar is more mainstream there are still insanely attractive go-go dancers dancing in cages over the dance floor making you feel like you just got hit with an ugly stick. It's difficult to find a gay bar that doesn't make you feel like you need to show your gym membership at the door.
The moral of the story
I'm like anyone else. I want to be healthy and I want to look good. Wanting to look good is not a bad thing. However, it is a bad thing to beat yourself up because VANITY FAIR isn't returning your calls about being on their next cover. Get inspired. Get motivated. Workout to feel good. Workout to look good but do it for the right reasons. I don't have kids and I won't have grand kids. I do have nieces and nephews and I would like to be around to see them grow up. If you do have kids you owe it to them to be healthy and be a good role model for them because fat kids have fat parents, true story.
My soap box just broke, i have to get down now.
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