Skinny: The Thin Ideal In Mass Media

“Numerous correlation and experimental studies have linked exposure to the thin ideal in mass media to body dissection ,internalization of the thin ideal , and disordered eating among women ” (Proud to be me .org) As a child we are lead to believe that being thin is beautiful and perfect . That any form of otherness was no longer seen as attractive. In the media thin women are paraded in short clothing , television reporters with shiny teeth model in tight dresses , and mothers remind their daughters to not eat as much so that they could be more attractive to males. As a child I believed that being skinny was beautiful ; that being thin was an important factor in attractiveness . Now I believe that any size and creed can be beautiful
There was a picture taken of an plus sized model . The model went under the name Tess Munster and she was just everything that I believed an model shouldn’t be . She had tattoos , piercings , and more importantly to me at the time , she was a larger woman . That capsized every notion I had. I began to question myself . “How could this plus sized woman be so confident with her body” . “Wasn’t she at all ashamed of the way she looked ”. After that I began my search , looking at her pictures , taking in the way she just oozed confidence . That confidence hadn’t come from being skinny or just being merely pretty . Tess was confident in who she was an person and that came off in the way she presented herself . While watching one of her interviews Tess stated that she had in fact been told countless times that she didn’t fit the beauty standard of others . That being plus sized did not fit the mold of society , and because of that she changed her outlook on life . Being confident and loving herself was more important than being skinny . Not to sound overly cliche or shallow but that was just ground breaking for me . without knowing it , just like moses woman had lead me to freedom with just her photo and a simple two minute interview .
Now I believe that I am a much better person . I am no longer as obsessed as I was before with being skinny . I am more so focused on being healthy mentally as well as physically . Loving who