I was recently... as in a couple of minutes ago, looking on the youtube comments of a ballet video... as yes I am thinking about maybe taking an adult class... anyway, on the comments was some people who are saying they are worried about having to be skinny to be a dancer which is normal I guess.
But then, I saw two TWELVE year old girls saying they are watching what they eat, exercising and losing weight because they deemed themselves ''chubby''... is it just me? But I find this kind of disturbing. When I was a child I gave no shits about what I looked like, and only started to care when I actually wanted boys attention which was ... what in year 9? so I was 13/14, and even then it was like... making sure my hair was washed! haha
Maybe I'm just a scumbag child, and I understand that it is important to be healthy and encourage kids in that way, but dieting, and exercising for weight loss...just doesn't sit well with me.
One kid was like ''I sometimes go for a bike ride when its warm'', its like yeah, go for a bike ride but not because you want to lose weight but because your TWELVE and should be doing that stuff because its fun!
It makes me sad to see the way people perceive the media every day, if I'm honest I don't blame the media I blame the society, the people, for it is them that the media is catered too. The only reason the media is posting half naked women on the front of magazines, with a ridiculous size zero is because thats what society wants, is aiming for in life. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a size zero, at least not anymore, and I was only that size because of my actual body, it had nothing to do with diet or exercising and that was kind of a good thing, and I DO miss that body but mainly because I am now in the unhealthy section on the BMI and I miss all my old clothes. NOT because of the media.
I just don't understand why people can't just say... ''yeah she looks good, but it's fake'' and understand that it's not real, and never will be, I did actually see an inspirational video about this, which I will post below. Anyway I'm a little interested in what others have to say about this, any comments or arguments are welcome ^.^
Hi there, yes I agree it is ridiculous that children of that age are thinking of such things. I just looked at the video you posted and the models on there look ill; not something to aim for I think but then i think in particular vulnerable people may be influenced by such things; it is ironic that we also have a "fat epidemic" going on at the same time, so the whole food thing is just a bit out of control. Never have we had so much choice and amount of food and yet there are extremes going on at both ends of the scale. Not everyone is meant to be slim; some people have slim body types and that is natural for them but many do not but also some young girls in this area actually eat too much junk food such as crisps and burgers and so it is more a question of eating healthily, rather than slimming that should be encouraged. The skin colour thing is something I've heard a lot about. This does seem to be a problem in that many women with darker skin are always trying to lighten their skin in the idea that lighter is better and will sometimes spend a lot of money on it. It is a shame when black people are constantly convincing you that they are light black rather than dark black as that is seen as inferior but the roots to this go back well before the cosmetic industry. Again luckily a lot of women dismiss this as rubbish.
I think the real focus should be on giving young developing girls a real all round sense of themselves as full individuals, able to have good careers, achieve in all areas of life and also regardless of "disability" as being disabled physically or mentally is no reason why not to have a full life. There will be some who are unduly influenced by these media images although hopefully most are able to distinguish between what a model looks like and what they look like; what is "real life" and what is magazines. Teachers and parents will have a big influence on this. It is the vulnerable children who do not have good parenting that could be at risk ,or parents who are influenced by such images themselves. Who on earth would want to look like any of those women (except for the long legs? mine could do with being couple of inches longer!) Not trivialising your post as I know this is a real problem nowadays. I think our generation (I am 55) escaped most of it, except for the temptation to have botox which I have resisted as it is too expensive and is indeed setting a false ideal which you then have to keep repeating to live up to.
I think there are many issues involved; the "boob job" thing gets to me. I think apart from where a woman has had a mascetomy or needs a reduction because the weight if causing back problems that there are very few real circumstances wherein a boob job is necessary . Personally I think fake boobs are not attractive and often look out of proportion with the body type as well. I have gym instructors who have clearly had them done and personally I think they would have looked better before.
I do find it terribly sad that young girls who are just a normal size for their body type ( and normal is anything from pretty flat to even a size 10 or 12) seem to want their boobs bigger and will pay £2,000- £3,000 to have it done. There should be stricter counselling before these things are carried out although I know some girls will just keep going round different places and will even have it done against the advice of the surgeon who finally does it as they still want it. I watched a programme once about this and was shocked to see that young boys preferred fake boobs to real boobs on girls. This is a terrible shame and is setting ridiculous expectations for young women when they enter relationships and has obviously come about from the porn industry wherein young boys see "fake" women and actually prefer that to the real thing. I would not like to be a young woman nowadays
I suspect that, as they usually do on such programmes, they cherry-picked the boys they interviewed, or only showed the ones that gave the right replies for the picture they wanted to paint. Whilst there are certainly those who think that way, which is really quite sad, there are plenty amongst the male persuasion who would agree with what you've said.
as an ex ballet dancer I appreciate your concerns. We get bombarded by magazines, TV, etc telling us how to get the 'perfect' body. That usually backfires so badly as it distorts our image of ourselves. Being fit and healthy is far more important.
I totally agree that children should not be worried about their Weight and dieting but sadly remember being the chubby kid and wanting to loose weight from about the age of 8. Looking back at photos there was nothing wrong with my Weight at that age, so must have been the bullying
What it is, is a socially received truth that skinny = attractive. Which is reinforced by the media.
There are two things that strike me as strange about that. The first is that it's predicated on the notion that there is some objective characteristics of beauty, which is nonsense. And also that you are given value by being attractive, again ridiculous. I've come to the conclusion that what's attractive is far as I'm concerned is what looks natural. A naturally skinny person who just has that sort of metabolism can look very good. Someone who's got skinny through fastidious dieting generally doesn't, because they don't look right somehow. They'd just look better with their natural shape. I know someone who had a nose job done - I always thought she looked better before. Afterwards her nose looked out of place somehow, it didn't look like it fitted with the rest of her face.
The second thing is that you can't easily separate physical and non-physical attraction that easily. In particular, the more you like someone as a person, the better they tend to look. I knew my ex before I got together with her. I'd have told you she was quite cute and sweet looking. After I'd been with her for a while I'd have told you in all sincerity that she was the sexiest woman on the planet. But as a society we always seem to separate and pigeonhole the two elements of attraction.
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