The negative effects of the media pushing us to believe we must reach a realistically unattainable level of "perfection" is having harrowing effects on our culture, our youth and our individual self-images.
When a culture constantly teaches "you need this" to be beautiful, rather than trying to help individuals recognize their own, personal and natural true beauty, the effects are far-reaching and terrible - as you can see here.
The Effects of Focus on "Perfection"
Overweight people feel they're confined to the scrap-heap, with 94% say they feel like 'second-class citizens' and 71 per cent that they are 'pilloried and poked fun at'.
There is no let up in the constant barrage of criticism and overweight women in particular say they suffer deep 'self-loathing' (83%), 'body hatred' (89%), 'depression' (91%) and 'utter despair' (79%).
They feel 'angry with themselves' (97%), 'insecure' (87%), 'inadequate' (80%) and 'worthless' (61%). In fact, two thirds of overweight women say they have felt 'life's not worth living' (65%) and one in 10 'frequently feels this way'. Overweight women have an extremely low body image. Only 1% are 'happy with their body'. They 'hate their hips and thighs' (95%), 'waist' (92%), 'arms' (88%), 'legs' (84%), 'neck' (77%), 'breasts' (73%), 'face' (67%), 'ankles', 'feet' and 'teeth' (63%) and 57% feel their 'hands are too fat'.
Many think the drastic option of cosmetic surgery could be the answer to their weight problems. Almost half of all overweight women, average age only 35, say they 'definitely intend to have cosmetic surgery either 'now' (31%) or 'in the future' (14%) and a further 27% think they 'possibly will'.
Only 28% rule it out completely. And the procedures they are most likely to opt for are 'tummy tuck' (65%), 'liposuction' (64%) and 'breast reduction' (24%).
- from Overweight people are "persecuted" says survey
Probably the biggest - and more worrisome - negative effect of reaching for unattainable perfection has been the huge and detrimental impact on our youth. Tweens and teens, even young adults, today mutilate, distort, harm and starve their bodies in higher numbers than ever before. Not only are more doing it - it's becoming fashionable, even "cool", to damage your body just to be closer to that ever-elusive "perfect". If that doesn't scream in bold, searing letters to the masses that it's time for positive change, I don't know what else will.
There are websites, forums and closely-knit groups for young people that "choose" to be anorexic; as a way of living. Yes, young people are making a conscious decision to wreck their physical and mental health - perhaps even to the point of death - to have the "perfect body".
There are the same avenues for willing and enthusiastic self-injurers, "cutters", to come together. The recently injured can post bloody and gruesome pictures to share with others, along with tips for "safe" injuring.
Not all of the online communities are bad - or even dangerous. A lot of them offer guidance, and can help a sufferer feel less lonely in their pain. The problem isn't necessarily the pro-ana sites or the pro-self-injury sites, but the very fact that such sites exist. It breaks my heart to realize that young people are proud of their self-hate, proud of their negative body image; that they loathe their bodies so deeply they are proud to be attacking, harming and disfiguring themselves.
The portrayal of glossy, fake and plastic perfection is having a tremendous effect on our younger generations - bringing about a wave of self-destruction never before seen. The problem is serious, and all too real.
This page was last updated on April 28, 2006
