Thinspiration
say they want to have a Thigh Gap or a Bikini Bridge.”
I went swimsuit shopping. It’s not a task I particularly enjoy. I’d like to say I’m comfortable with my appearance and compared to a lot of women, that’s probably true.
I also read this article today and had very mixed feelings about it.
Thinspo didn’t exist as a word when I was a teenager, but of course I tortured myself with diets like everyone else. I had a big list of things I hated about my body.
Even now, when I’m absurdly content with my life and firmly believe that blue cheese DOES taste better than thin feels… there’s something about that change room. I struggled.
Why am I telling you this?
The experts point to mass and social media as the problem. I’m not convinced.
Yes, photoshopping indicates a cultural sickness. We’ve lost touch with reality and taken on fictional standards. We hurt ourselves.
Size 12-18 models more accurately reflect society, but the problem isn’t media. It’s simply that people torture themselves.
There’s something dark in us that can’t help it. We gloss over other people’s flaws as minor and unimportant. We magnify our own. That’s the sickness. That’s what needs to change.
Beauty should be something to play with, to appreciate and laugh about. To fix this cultural obsession, one at a time, we need to forget ourselves and have fun.
Forget who’s watching (chances are, no-one). Turn that lens off yourself and pay attention to what’s beautiful around you.
I’ll never have a bikini bridge and I don’t need one. You know why?
I’m going to dive under and float over the ocean waves. I’ll squish wet sand between my toes. I’ll chase seagulls. I’ll crash onto my towel and doze as the warm sun evaporates and crystalises salt on my skin.
What else could possibly matter?
Muchness 
“What else could possibly matter”?
It depends if people have the ability like yourself to accept themselves for who they are or if the media has managed to do what it set out to do and make people so self conscious of their image that they can never let it go.
It might be better to give up media for Lent rather than the blue cheese.
I admit, I’ve limited my exposure to mass media over the past couple of years. I very rarely watch free to air and never buy magazines. I’m on social media quite a bit though and see those ads for 1 amazing food that will solve my weight loss problems forever. There are also lots of online dating ads and ones promising to give me the secret to make men fall in love with me. They amuse me, more than anything.
Absolutely, the point of advertising is to heighten awareness of dissatisfaction. Ads outline a problem to you and then offer a solution.
So, it’s really still a matter of what you choose to pay attention to. Do you want to expose yourself to input that implies there’s a problem with you? Or would you rather eat cheese and olives on a picnic blanket in the dappled sunlight … or run headlong into the ocean or drink beer on a hot day? These things don’t care how you look. All you need is enthusiasm 🙂
I’m employed by the government. The ability to dream and think and be happy is gradually sucked away from you 😦
I am giving it another year and then I am gone.