What I Would Change About Society.

           Society everywhere places a set of standards to be upheld by those who wish 'fit in' or conform to the social norm. This holds true for our community as well where a very prevalent, and hard to achieve standard falls upon women: being thin. This standard of being thin set by the media causes girls to have an unhealthy body image which can lead to mental, as well as physical health issues.

          There is a difference from being fit and healthy than being thin, this fine line causes some girls to strive for a weight goal that is unhealthy for their height as well as body type.  We all have a healthy weight range for our age and height; this can be determined by using a BMI or body mass index calculator. However this healthy range is not what girls strive to achieve. What society has deemed beautiful is not a muscular fit body, it is a wasp thin waist, protruding hipbones and pronounced collar bones. This however has not always been the case. Years ago being thicker and robust was a sign of wealth, status and beauty in society. Women sought to gain waist to have curves and a sexy voluptuous body. To be thin at that time was to be under fed and not socially or financially well off. Back then there were advertisements to gain weight for women, unlike today's diet pill and rapid weight loss promotions.

          The social media through advertisements such as commercials of thin, seemingly 'perfect' girls or magazines that have them plastered all over it has become so engrained into daily life it has become what is thought of as 'normal'. No matter where you turn you see headlines of 'weight loss', 'I lost 30 pounds' and the social media bashing those who have put on a few pounds. It is a sickening cycle for women in society there is no happy medium with criticism waiting around every corner from ones peers and even worse: one's self.  These 'perfect' girls all over the media, many of them airbrush and virtually altered to appear as they do, cause normal girls in every day life to have unrealistic, but most of all unhealthy expectations for their own bodies. These expectations lead to girls have negative body images which cause them to feel the need to improve themselves through drastic measures.

           These drastic measures can range from skipping a meal, to not eating at all. At first they might try to approach changing their body to be more like the one socially acceptable by dieting and exercise but many become discouraged by the lack of instant gratification. This discouragement leads them to finding alternate methods of weight loss which is the reason behind the eating disorder epidemic of today. Girls feel the need to starve themselves to look the way society expects them to look like. This can start as early as elementary school for these girls, what happened to a care free childhood? It has been tarnished by the unhealthy expectations of the media. These expectations are literally killing girls everywhere and yet this image is still so coveted.

           This is to me one of the worst elements of society for it affects girls of all ages not only in our own community but in others. This image leads to health issues and in some extreme cases death. It is something that the media needs to address and fix through the promotion of a healthy women who is proud of her body, not a under weight one. There is a fine line between healthy and unhealthy and society needs to realize this not only for the sake of girls today but for the future generation that will look to ours for advice and guidance.