How Does Your Body Image Affect Your Esteem - Essay Example

Topic: How Does Your Body Image Affect Your Self Esteem? Do you think men and women think about their bodies differently or differ in how important they feel their physical appearance is? Have Media “Ideals” Of Male And Female Bodies Affected You Or People You Know Either Negatively Or Positively? Introduction All human beings have two eyes, two ears, a nose, a mouth, two hands and two legs. Moreover, the basic structure of every female is similar to every other female and likewise that of every male is similar to every other male. Yet, often we stumble across “gorgeous” looking people and unknowingly keep looking at them in awe! When I come to think of it, during such instances if we are not acquainted with the person then at the very first sight we are impressed merely by the person’s physical appearance. Truly enough, our appearances matter a lot. But there are many other significant factors which contribute in determining our path in life. Following essay deals with the reasons for different physical appearances, their effects on self-esteem, how different genders think about their appearances and the influences that media “ideals” have on people. Keywords: appearance, consequence, genetic, environmental, attractiveness, achievement, personality, happiness, perseverance, beauty, satisfaction I still recollect how as a kid I was never conscious about my appearance until I had entered adolescent phase of my life. As a kid I used to munch on every bite of chocolate without any concerns of weight gain. That was the real innocent enjoyment. It always brought me immense happiness to have my favourite candy, ice creams and chocolate bars. All this was when I was unaware of the consequences of my physical appearance. As I entered my puberty, I noticed the way people around me had changed their perspective to look at me. Of course my own attention toward my body increased considerably. I started noticing the small changes occurring in me. Furthermore, my social interactions underwent a change. Gradually I understood the importance attached to a person’s physical appearance and hence witnessed myself and others around me thriving to either maintain or improve their physical appearances. A little more study shows us that physical changes are a result of genetic constitution and environmental influences. Otherwise people in hilly regions wouldn’t have been sturdier and less delicate while people in snow clad regions wouldn’t have developed dense hair over their body to protect them from cold. Genetic make up also contributes a lot in determining appearances; otherwise a fair couple’s kid wouldn’t have been fairer than that of wheatish complexion of kids around him. It has become an inescapable fact that appearances help us gain lots of success in life because the very first impression we make on others is a result of our physical appearance. Even anthropologists have cited the importance of physical appearance and its impacts on the achievements on a person. Various companies and organizations dealing in cosmetic brands of products have invented methods to change body images and they claim to suggest different set of changes according to different persons’ needs. Changing times have forced people to undergo many treatments, surgeries and medicines to somehow make them self look more attractive. Many popular techniques to improve body image include figure corrections, breast enlargements in females, extra fat removal- from thighs and waist, toning abs/ muscles in males as well as females, height improvement pills, plastic surgery to change the structure of nose or entire face in general, applying make up to enhance the beauty, using designer wear outfits to give an edge over others’ clothes and appearances, undergoing exercise regimes- for fitness which is a welcome change amidst all artificial schemes. It is natural to feel elated for having a good body shape; and why not? Time and again we see our celebrity figures endorsing products which claim to improve our hair texture, hair length, body fitness, body shapes, etc. Even companies know the kind of impact our favourite sport stars, cine stars and politically significant figures have on us. There are kids who run to their mothers asking them to buy the ready to eat noodle pack or biscuits because they watched their loving celebrity promoting it! Very often we too as adults succumb to the advertisements and buy the endorsed products with a hope to witness some changes in our appearances. I would like to mention how an average looking friend of mine had broken down to tears thinking she could never have a good body image. Eventually she bought a product which claimed to offer a fairer skin to its user. They are also numerous instances when I have seen people going in for specific pills which would enhance their body height, muscular built and strength. Here we have a category of people we who are enchanted by their “ideals” endorsing certain products and want to emulate for the sake of changing themselves into attractive people than they actually are. On the other hand we also have a very large number of people who constantly feel dejected on having seen slender, beautiful, fair and attractive people. The feeling of being an inferior to others constantly nags their minds. This is a serious blow to their self esteem. Their confidence breaks down to pieces and their mental state becomes fragile. They become sensitive to people’s comments. Such people cannot have a moment of relief such as when they would think of something else other than their looks. Men and women though different, have the same attitude to constantly make them self look like their much admired cine stars whom they watch on television serials, movies and plays. We hear them being annoyed about their looks; some feeling fat, some skinny, some too short or high; we need to imbibe in them that each one has a unique body and they must learn to love their own image (Body Image and Self Esteem). Body parts being fundamentally different, boys and girls concentrate on respective priorities but they have a similar outlook to expect changes in their body. Any lack of signs for expected improvement can lead to severe depression. The much simple looking problem achieves a grave importance in a person’s life and is many times difficult to deal with. A person may start hating himself/herself; and self denial is an impediment to one’s progress. During such times it is essential to look for causes of our appearances being as they are; either because of our eating habits, or heredity, or environment and accordingly try and change whatever we can to achieve desired attractive looks. Our personality undergoes a drastic change if our efforts to change appearance go according to our wish. Fulfilment of wish gives us a renewed confidence and fills us with vigour. The process of changing appearances is an internal fight distributed between accepting what we are and still striving to become better than what we are today. A balance between these two thoughts determines self content which naturally varies from person to person. With an increased awareness among kids and their maturity coming of age earlier than yester years, we see a change in everyone around us; the change to look better and do better in their lives. Even a kid girl is seen emulating her mom or aunt and dressing up their style for fun. But she mutely reinstates the fact that physical appearance cannot be completely neglected. In spite of such cases all around us, it’s we who should decide the kind of importance that we should attach to our looks. It cannot be forgotten that successful people are not the ones who merely concentrated upon improving their looks but those who strived to a large extent on improving their intellectual levels. Success, growth, achievements are all relative terms and differ from person to person. Looks are just one more aspect which helps us achieve our goals smoothly. But hard work and persistence is above all this. Whilst we constantly mention about desire to look better and the fight for it, we also need to address a very important issue that of economic sustainability for the entire expenses that one might have to go through. Everyone in the society cannot afford to be spend-thrift just to have a surgery done at one’s will when their family barely meets daily necessities of life. The lower income strata of society, the under developed groups of a town, the remote villages of a country and other tribal communities are all off the hook from beautification acts which people living in metros can avail. Man’s happiness is usually comparative. We are sad because we see our neighbour/ friend being better than us; instead if we look at physically disabled people we would be much happier and ready to thank the Almighty for all that has been bestowed upon us. We need to judge our desires as either being shallow urges generated as a result of following crowd or genuine desires to modify our self. For it is obviously not wrong for participants of a beauty-queen contest to glorify their body images for the sake of competition. At the same time, it is the true realization that care, support and help of our loved ones can go miles beyond appearances to guarantee our success. Many people tend to deny the importance attached to physical images; it cannot be denied but at the same time, only physical appearance cannot have a mainstay in determining man’s success in life. But it certainly influences his achievements. Whatever may be our appearances, we all must learn to accept them. We must remember the golden adage that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. We must decide our satisfaction levels and convince our self at least at some point of time that I am pretty enough as even though if I could be less gorgeous externally but I am surely a lot more beautiful psychologically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually! Works cited More-self esteem website. Body Image and Self Esteem. Retrieved on March 12, 2010 from http://www.more-selfesteem.com/bodyimage.htm Read More