Stricken
The haunting reflection shows an image that is unsatisfactory to the one that it represents. Constant picking, counting, changing, flustering, everything that is done is just never enough, just below the expected. Thousands of everyday people suffer from the view that is seen through their eyes in the mirror. It haunts many to points of extreme where measures are taken to get where the perceived image should make them. The thing that most people do not realize is that women are not the only ones that feel the pressure that society pushes into every crevice. Men suffer even as much as women do in many aspects when it comes down to body image. Whether the influence is a younger sister or brother, a picture plastered up on a wall or billboard or all those people on TV. Each and every person affected has their poison that eats away at the very essence of their being. Growing with the pain is where the real journey begins. Some are still left in the shadows never to recover but there is still hope in the future as long as the minds of the young are taught in every aspect, that beauty is not what we see but what we experience through ourselves and the diligence that it takes to hold heads up and not down. Some people have been fighting this from the beginning and others stumble in along the way but no matter what many different people whether it is sex or race suffer from the ill images that are perceived as beauty. This growing epidemic is crushing the short lives that we all have on this planet. Something needs to be done before eating disorders and surgeries gone wrong wipe out our entire generation and generations to come.
ProQuest presented some very disturbing statistics, “…American men underwent 690,361 cosmetic surgical procedures, including 217,083 hair-transplant operations and 54,106 liposuction procedures, not to mention surgery to augment their pectoral muscles, their buttocks, their calves and even their penises,”(article from ProQuest). The extreme measures that these men are going through are just so that they have that plastic action figure looking body so, as to the world they are “sexy”. This shocking evidence is not to be taken lightly; this problem is growing at a pace-quickening speed. When the numbers continue to increase the problems continue to escalade. Men are now becoming a part of the number of known people that have problems with the image that is seen in the mirror. People used to only picture women standing in front of the mirrors in the dressing rooms or at home critiquing every inch of their entire bodies, stating things resembling “ if only I could lose 20 more lbs” or “if I was skinnier I would wear that”, but now men fall into that equation. The images that are displayed everywhere are unreal and do not resemble the majority of people that wish to be similar to them. If beauty is what people want to see, show a mother helping her daughter get ready for her first high school dance, show a father holding his first child; show an elderly couple holding hands after being together for decades; that is what beauty should be represented as. Never should men think that if they want to get the “pretty girls” they need to look like the Barbie doll Ken. But that is not what this world represents. Beauty in this world is only skin deep and that is where the exploration of the human life ends and hell begins.
From personal experience, I have fallen into the unforgiving trap of caring about what other people think of me. It eats away at my heart everyday that I put so much into what I say and how I approach people and just what I look like. I try to play off like it doesn’t affect me but it does take a toll on me. I can get lost in my thoughts about what it would be like if all the eyes were on me when I entered a room, and what it would be like for someone to think that I am attractive but I know that if I would only back myself up that true beauty of who I really am would shine. The essence of my self being is corrupted by society and that being thin, and having long flowing hair and perfect skin is the only way to get noticed. It just takes a hold of its victim and squeezes until there is no life left to devour. I notice when a “hot” girl or a “sexy” guy walks in the room and yes I do stare. It is hard not to compare myself to the person even if I feel like I looked really good that day. It feels as though it is genetically transposed into my brain that looking or being a certain way is what I should represent. What should really be advertised is to live life in a way that there are no regrets and that beauty is more than just skin deep. The fact that this earth is still spinning and our lungs are still breathing in air should mean something, but the sad thing is that, thoughts like that are only a whisper comparing to the loud bombing that represents what we see.
According to an article from ProQuest, “Even models with buff bodies were paranoid about love handles. They wanted signed agreements that gave them the right to see how the other men looked,” (ProQuest). The models that a large portion of society think are perfect and wish and dream every night to look like nit pick and tear apart themselves, and this is who people want to be. It is just a vicious cycle that thousands are tangled in. the holes that people are digging themselves into is growing dramatically in size. People think that if they just looked even close to the people they see on TV, it would make their lives a much better place but even having that perfection doesn’t bring happiness. It is never enough. When is it going to be enough? When everyone looks like Ken and Barbie dolls. When are people going to learn? The fact that bullying and fighting is tolerated by kids is where it all starts and it ends in death. The hatred for oneself only seems to end when that person dies and can not feel anymore pain. And the cycle continues through the eyes of they’re witnesses. “But the pleasure is not without cost: Many men are now developing women’s maladies – a cruel cultural trick if ever there was one. ‘There’s a serious increase of eating disorders among men,’ Bordo said, ‘of steroid abuse, of exercise compulsion,’” (article from ProQuest). The tables are turning in the cruelest of ways, not only are women suffering from this illness that is quickly turning into a disease but now statistics are showing that the retched eating disorder is becoming more popular in men. An eating disorder controls the mind of the victim and latches on like a leech to the skin. It feasts on insecurities and doubts in oneself and truly weakens its host. There are many different types of eating disorders which include: anorexia, bulimia, purging and fasting. With reference to myself, I have suffered from both anorexia and bulimia. I was weakened to a point where I still have physical and emotional damage. With that knowledge and experience that I carry deep in my heart, fuels my desire to help create change; not only in myself but in the lives of others that I share my life with and even the ones that I do not.