Body Dysmorphia and Self Image: The Obsession Is Real
This is a super interesting topic for me because it hits home all the time. The constant bombarding of what’s the best look, what body type we should have, how our hair should be etc.. is truly the darkest of dark rabbit holes when we truly dig deep into why appearance is so mind-boggling.
For me, I’ve grown up with social media the majority of my life and honestly since using it, mentally it’s just a slippery slope. I’ve naturally been an overly conscious person and quite introspective and it’s tough. I think maybe across my life, every-time I’ve had a self-conscious thought about my body image would probably be at least 10x a day if you multiple this by 365 days and maybe 15 years... you get the just it’s a CRAZY obsession. I’ll be very open and honest...there’s things I like about myself and things I don’t. I am 100% my worst critic and I know if I had the opportunity to change things I 100% will as the saying goes. “You’re not ugly, just broke”. I see what I don’t like and it’s like “Hm that could be tweaked”.
But when does it end?
The age we are in now, cosmetic treatments have become so accessible and more affordable where a few click clicks and a phone call, it’s like hello doctor, hi, book me in babes x👋🏾 .
I had a little eureka moment watching a video about Bella Hadid, a model who has had quite a bit of cosmetic surgery done but still isn’t happy. I was like, “this makes no sense, she looks insane #goals” but as it continued I then understood how our minds become so warped as we take that first step into the unknown territory of tweaking our looks more and more “problems” must be fixed to fix this unattainable standard of beauty and then it hit me. This gorgeous model’s mind had become so warped she was beginning to look less and less human and more like a beautiful wax figure (plastic). Now, I will not shame her because we are all human and susceptible to judgment especially as she is a model. But then I say again, where does it end? For me, how will it end?
We do live in a shallow and superficial society, looks matter, a lot. The pressure to look absolutely perfect is immense but perfection isn’t even human. Will those ascribing to this unreachable mirage of beauty start turning into wax-like figures? I don’t know. Technology and beauty inextricably go hand in hand today, I just wonder in the next 20 to 30 years what will we look like, what new technological advancements will be brought to the forefront for beauty or is this new beauty faze just a fad-like trend like everything else today in modern society. Will au-Naturelle be the new in-thing. So many questions but very few answers.
Ps. If you found this post interesting, let me know you’re thoughts so we can have a good chat about it.
-Lero x