Let me take a selfie .. with my food


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Being a girl myself, I have been exposed to the desire some woman have for the ‘perfect’ body. Though there was always problems with being 'skinny' and ‘fat’, I felt there was never a middle ground. Growing up no matter how much I tried, I found it difficult to put on weight, my friends would be calorie counting to lose weight. I would try to encourage them not to, as being teenagers it seemed absurd; we were young. However, I was immediately disregarded by statements such as, “you're skinny what do you know, you're skin and bone”. Now in my mid 20s, still slim, I try to take a leap out of my older brothers book, keeping fit and eating right. It doesn't matter if you're slim, you can still be very unfit, which I was.  

 
Some teenage girls and adults alike will idealise woman in magazine, having been airbrush with professional makeup. The papers seem to criticise and judge woman who are in the public eye. They appear to target them in a natural scenario, like taking a walk on the beach, if they have a tiny roll on their stomach, the media latches on to this and publicly demeans them. This then insinuates to the reader that tiny blemishes will be the main focus of you. Then a day or two later they'll be in the paper once more with a caption 'look how much weight she's lost', clearly a contradiction, but clinging on to the readership they have; targeting self-conscious, insecure girls. This will be followed very hastily with the persons 'new diet and exercise regime’, with pictures in a few days of them jogging without breaking a sweat. It gives a false image of women, to both males and females, making girls strive for this look and men think this is a standard look. 
 
 


The fad diets that are published in the media make it seem so accessible and easy to follow. It gives the impression 'if I can do it, why cant you?' a motivational challenge. Instagram models, for example, will filter their posts or keep a log of their diet on this, making it an easily accessible and constantly present image. It is however, still an image, an image that has been manipulated for the purposes of being seen by others and to be made appealing. Instagram puts taking pictures of healthy food on a pedestal, if you eat healthy then you'll gain followers, if your body matches the food is even more critical. It creates a great amount of narcissism and also vulnerability to those observing.





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