This Is the Brutally Honest Body Image Lesson That Should Be Taught in School

By Jessi Kneeland

Wear more makeup, don’t be fat, look less haggard, wear tighter clothes, wear looser clothes…

Flip through any women’s magazine, and there’s a good chance you’ll get the same underlying message: No matter what we do with our brains, hearts, or spirits, if we’re not also sexually desirable, we’ve failed. Some articles would even have us believe that the act of having sex is actually a performance, done with the sole intention of impressing and titillating one’s partner. While this sometimes leads to hilariously terrible sex advice, it’s a symptom of a much larger problem: Mainstream media is teaching women to place the needs of other people (in this case, men) before their own and to look at (and judge) themselves and their bodies with a hypercritical eye.

These messages about sexuality and bodies are well-documented by blogs like Beauty Redefined, which illustrate, for example, how often even seemingly empowering statements—like the fact that a woman’s confidence is a real turn-on—are undermined by subtle phrasing that “privileges male pleasure above all else.”

Basically women are told that their self-confidence should be acquired, not because it’s good for their minds, bodies, or hearts, but because confidence is appealing to others (once again, men). This reinforces the message that being desirable, pleasing others, and attracting men are a woman’s most important duties—which can affect every aspect of overall health and wellness, even which workout you choose.

If you’re surrounded by the message that your body exists to attract men (and to make other women envious) then of course you’ll be compelled to choose a workout that promises to makes you the most “attractive,” regardless of whether you actually enjoy it.

It’s no wonder that women feel worse about themselves after browsing through women’s magazines.

We may not always be consciously aware of this messaging, but it sticks in our minds: “You need to get rid of body hair, pull the toxins from your mouth, and for Pete’s sake burn off of those love handles before someone sees how disgusting you are!” It’s no wonder that women feel worse about themselves and their bodies after browsing through women’s magazines The influence of fashion magazines on the body image satisfaction of college women: an exploratory analysis. Turner SL, Hamilton H, Jacobs M, et al. Adolescence. 1997 Fall;32(127):603-14..

All of these messages lead to what one study calls “self objectification,” or women internalizing the way magazines objectify us and using that perspective as their primary view of their own physical selves. This in turn leads to habitual and often hypercritical body-monitoring, a lack of awareness of what’s going on inside their bodies, and possibly contributes to a whole host of mental health risks.

What does this have to do with fitness? Everything. Because this self-objectification means that when a woman comes to me for training, she has a million perceived external flaws that …read more

Source:: Greatist