Search the Community

Why is it so hard to look at your own body in an objective way? Most people always apply a certain standard when their look in the mirror. This standard is influenced by the media. But I don't think this fact can fully explain our behavior. Even without the media telling us to loose weight or be ultra-slim, we would still create standards for ourselves. We would use the mental image of a woman or man we once saw at the beach and turn it into our comparison standard. I guess it's a person's way of expressing him- or herself. It's in our nature to be ambitious. And it's our unconscious way of improving our self, because we hardly ever choose an unwanted and unhealthy lifestyle as our goal. It's an ongoing spiral, though. People have plastic surgery, get a body part fixed, build up muscle mass, or loose body fat... but only very few people can see and accept their improved selves afterwards. It's not right to blame everything on the media. Individuals usually want to belong to a crowd of other people. It looks like nature has given us the burden of constantly being unsatisfied as a way to improve ourselves.