[CHAT] Body Image
It’s summer here in Australia, and with summer comes pressures and expectations about what your body should look like and what you should be doing. These pressures can come from lots of places – from yourself, to your mates, to the ads you see on TV. People think that they have to get the perfect "bikini body", or that it's time to lose weight, or that they just need to look their best when they're down at the beach with their friends.
Does society (and ourselves) put unreasonable expectations on us? How can we overcome this? How can we stay positive about our body?
All of this can be a bit overwhelming and confusing, so join us here on Monday 27th February at 8pm AEDT, or click 'Reply' to start the chat now!
And I can't believe I like Barbie as a kid 😛
Okay, next question 😄
Where do you think the pressure to "have a good body for summer" comes from?
We also see the body's of friends and we think that we need to be like them just because they're 'skinny' or 'muscular', or anything that we want to idolise as we want to be like our peers and friends in nearly every way possible.
Where do you think the pressure to "have a good body for summer" -or just a particular body image- comes from?
Everywhere - even at uni last year girls talk about it!
Definitely everywhere @loves netball and i wonder if it's a kind of self reinforcing thing... like people get kinda brainwashed into thinking a certain way, and then they either intentionally or unintentionally pull other people into their way of seeing things?
Where do you think the pressure to "have a good body for summer" -or just a particular body image- comes from?\
Everywhere, in some senses even talking about body image in this thread is creating pressure to have a certain body image, because we're like "everybody be healthy!" and if someone has an unhealthy body image, they might feel quite a bit of pressure!
I think we are social animals. So we will always take queues from others and we'll always be influenced, what we can hope to do is notice the influence and decide for ourelves... maybe? I am not sure 😛
Seems like the media puts the most pressure on us 😞 Are we ready for the next Q?
What do you think is key to having positive body image?
While I agree with everyone in that media and marketing (I'm looking at you, Instagram/tabloid magazines) have a lot to do with putting pressure on people to conform to a certain body type, I'd also lay a fair part of the blame on just plain ol' sex. I mean, let's face it - not everyone who works out at the gym is doing it for their health. A large part of it is simply about aesthetics and being "attractive" - even if there's not necessarily a partner in mind that you specifically want to be attractive to. At the end of the day, humans are animals, and all of us (asexuals aside) have an inbuilt desire to be reproductively appealing...particularly if we're anticipating that we're going to be nude in front of someone we desperately want to impress.
(Of course, you could argue that it's the media that tells us what is "attractive", so it kind of becomes a cyclical argument.)
What do you think is key to having positive body image?
Hmmm...that's a tricky one. As everyone's noted already, the media (I'm looking at you, tabloid magazines/Instagram) plays a big part in putting pressure on us to conform to a certain body image, and that's pretty hard to avoid, unless if you're keen on becoming a hermit and live in the wilds (not entirely untempting, on some days). But I think it mostly has to do with having a sense of self that's at least partially divorceable from your body image (noting that body image does not always equal actual body shape).
Essentially, what I mean by that is the first thing you think of when you describe yourself to a stranger should not be "I'm fat" or "I'm thin". In fact, I'd probably go so far as to say it shouldn't be in the top ten descriptives you think of - there are so many more interesting things to a person than their bodies. Because at the end of the day, we're all pretty similar there. Almost everyone has four limbs, a head and a face; there's so much more that makes you you than how much (or how little) fat you happen to carry around with you.
EDIT: Oh, and not trying to get into other peoples' heads too much. Stop thinking "what do they think of me"? Because seriously, unless you ask (which, let's face it, most of us won't), you're never going to know for sure, and you'll only drive yourself mad if you spend too long trying to figure it out from conjecture.
@Ben-RO I hope I'm not in trouble for this... it's about time people stopped bagging out people who are skinny; or others putting pressure on people to be fit. A lot of people get being thin and fit confused two completely different things. So sometimes when people are told to get fit, they think they look fatter than normal. And then comes all the dangerous stuff....
Okay, how about this one;
What are some things you like about your body?
What are some things you like about your body?
I like my arms, which might seem kind of weird, but they're very arm-like and help me do lots of things like lifting and clapping and dancing.
I like my legs too, because they are very leg-like and let me run around and play soccer and not miss my bus. Also my hair, but only really in the mornings after I've showered when it cooperates with me. It's get's a little disobedient when it's dry 😛
What are some things you like about your body?
It's a hard question and I don't actually like answering it but anyway...
My hair is nice and easy to put up 😛 My nails grow nicely. Small boobs that don't get in the way 😛 I like that I eat heaps, but it doesn't show. (That's more my metabolism, but i've never felt "fat" really.)
Convienience really 😄
Edit: I posted it twice. hehe
What are some things you like about your body?
I hope you're not going to ask the opposite of this question 😛
-my hair colour 😛
-can run - endurance
-athletic kind of build
-short so I can run throw people's legs 
-the colour yellow suits me fine and I love it!!
-it's mine and I don't give a rats what anyone says about it!!
Best make @Ben-RO do a VO2max test then we'll see who is laughing (me!!!)
I also like my body's strength endurance chin ups and push ups. I even have biceps that show yet I don't do bicep curls 😛
edit: can withstand the cold. Often wear shorts when it's like 12 degrees in winter 😛
I also wear shorts in winter @loves netball. Sometimes it's a bad choice though, and I end up totally freezing 😛
That's an awesome list of positives you've made, too 😄
Why do people find it difficult to identify positive aspects of their body?
I think we're all our harshest critics, and we often judge ourselves way more than anyone else does. So that might be why it's difficult. On the other hand, it must just be that we're all so humble...
Hahah i will not be able to laugh during or after a VO2 max test @loves netball 😛
Okay time for one last Q and also for everyone to say goodnight cause it's nearly the end of the chat! But you can always come back later and answer any of the questions in the chat or continue the conversation 🙂
Why do people find it difficult to identify positive aspects of their body?
Why do people find it difficult to identify positive aspects of their body?
I mean, the easy answer is just that we're constantly comparing ourselves to unrealistically high standards, right? We all want to be perfect, so we tend to compare ourselves to individuals with relatively ideal bodies, whether that happens to be our friends, or (perhaps more commonly) celebrities and other media figures. And in doing so, we tend to forget that those guys tend to have a lot more help looking the way they do than we do- models have special trainers that help them train their bodies for juuust the right amount of muscle definition and posture, talented photographers to ensure they're always well-lit and a whole team of hair and make-up professionals and photoshop retouchers to make sure every single feature is pixel-perfect.
Hey, if we had that much help, we'd probably look pretty model-esque too. We don't though, because our job isn't to look pretty, and we don't spend 40 hours ensuring that that's the case. And that's fine! Because seriously- how many of us actually want to spend that much time working on their looks?
But your brain doesn't make that connection, because a lot of the work that models put in isn't inherently obvious. We don't punish ourselves for not being able to sprint as fast as Usain Bolt, because we know how much training he's put in to get as fast as he is. But what models do is often opaque, so it's easier to assume that we could just look the way they do with a bit of readily-achievable effort, so we punish ourselves when it turns out that we can't meet those unrealistic expectations.
(No offense to any models or would-be models who might be reading this - you do you, and I respect the amount of effort you put into your work. But I don't think I'm being controversial when I say- not everyone wants to become a model.)
Why do people find it difficult to identify positive aspects of their body?
I now personally, i'm afraid. Afraid that someone will think i'm too confident or think i'm up myself etc. just for being ablle to say something.
It can aslo be hard to find things we like because of the constant drilling into our brains that we need to "fix" ourselves from the media.
Why do people find it difficult to identify positive aspects of their body?
We've talked about this stuff before but no one wants to come across cocky. People bag out others who love themselves.
And I guess the pressure of having to have the PERFECT body. Not sure what that is though
