Body Image

As boys in my generation grew up we saw Comic books and cartoons with He-Man and the hulk and superman and many other muscular super heroes. We were stunned by the comic book heroes with their big muscles and super human strength.

As we became teenagers and young adults their was WWE, Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Rock depending on your generation, Thor and Rocky Balboa. All of these actors and athletes with larger muscles and charisma that made woman swoon and that made men wish they could be like these larger than life heroes.

Some guys would have noticed channing Tatum in Magic Mike as did many woman. Many men wanted to look like him and be able to dance like him. Many woman wished their partner could look like him and dance like him. Unfortunately we can’t all look like Channing Tatum.

These are the the cartoon images, actors and athletes that put unrealistic expectations on men in society. When we realise how difficult or impossible it is to look like these images we either give up or we do anything it takes to look like these images.

Gyms are full of guys that train almost every day, take all the supplements that the guy at the supplement store suggests and when they don’t start looking like their favourite super hero they start on the steroids. For some this doesn’t always end well.

Did someone say body dysmorphia?

For woman, the ideal body for woman is also unrealistic. In generations past, young girls grew up with Barbie dolls and also cartoon images of Sheerer and cartoon images of cat woman and Wonder Woman.

These super heroes with impossibly small waists, impossibly large boobs. The perfect hour glass figures and impossibly athletic with fighting skills and athleticism that seemed impossible to match.

Unfortunately at the same time the opposite image was on also popular in the form of super models who were impossible thin and wearing clothes so small and only seemed to suit super models and the majority of woman’s bodies just did not look good in these clothes.

There was also bikini models and playboy models who were not as thin but had unusually large breasts tiny waists that seem to have got bigger with Every cover.

The confusion for woman was that there was so many looks and all seemed to be impossible to reach. They were either super thin, super athletic or super curvy.

So woman had either developed an eating disorder or spent hours in the gym and/or hours getting bigger boobs and all sorts of plastic surgery and fillers.

More body dysmorphia.

After many years of working hard to achieve an image men and woman either burn out or gave up or made themselves very sick in the process.

The biggest problem in the last 15 years is the emergence of social media and software that distorts images. This has made good bodies seem unbelievable.

For the viewer the image seems almost impossible.

The person photoshopping their image is obviously unhappy with themselves and is not living their own story.

Social media has distorted reality and set impossible standards. If you want to be happy with yourself the best person to compare yourself with is yourself.

So what is the answer?

In my opinion it’s important to be a little more self focussed. Focus on ourselves and trying to be the best we can be with the time that we have and the body type we have.

The more we can be proud of who we are and what we have achieved the better we will feel and this will go a long way towards internal happiness.

In this way we won’t resort to dangerous expensive practices that could do serious damage to our health just to reach a standard that is not our own and never was.

If you would like to lose some weight then do it because it will make you feel better. If you want to add some muscle do it because it will make you feel better.

Be proud of the results that you have achieved.

That is the key to internal satisfaction.

Maybe turn off social media.