Poor female self-image caused by?

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  • ketrell
    ketrell Posts: 55 Member
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    I agree.
  • mmuzzatti
    mmuzzatti Posts: 706 Member
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    and here I am liking you they way you are....so much for keeping up with fashion!
  • Sweet13_Princess
    Sweet13_Princess Posts: 1,207 Member
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    I think that poor self-image is a result of upbringing. My mom was always heavy, so she was on me a lot about my weight, especially if I gained. She still does it!

    I think the modeling industry simply increases the problematic aspects of the situation.

    Shannon
  • _David_
    _David_ Posts: 476 Member
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    the phrase "women should have more meat on their bones" is just wrong...comes off to me like your talking about a cow or other animal...just my inital thought on the topic....
    Take it as you will I could care less. But I am not comparing females to cows, you are. Sorry if you didn't like it, read through the post and nove on
  • angryguy77
    angryguy77 Posts: 836 Member
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    I have poor self image from the comments my husband makes about how hot and beautiful some celebs are-guess cause he doesn't say it to me it gives me that poor imagery

    he should tell you how good looking you are everyday. No offense, but from the looks of it, he overachieved and should consider himself lucky.
  • La_Amazona
    La_Amazona Posts: 4,855 Member
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    I think it's a cycle. And I also think it can come from many other things as well such as the way you grew up, what you were told as you were growing up, etc...

    But I'll stick to your 2 options. I think it has to do with both and like I said, the cycle. Both options feed off of each other. The media throws it in our face that this is what sexy is, this is what looks good, this is what is hot and basically if you don't look like this, you're lacking. Men (and women) then see this all the time as well. There's porn, there's magazines, there's the commercials in which men as young boys grow up looking at the "hot" women and when they're gf or wife cannot compete because she's not photoshopped or doesn't have the big boobs all the make up, then she's lacking. I think both options attribute to low self image.
  • _David_
    _David_ Posts: 476 Member
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    There was a study done a few months back (I heard about it from the Dan Savage Podcast) about what kind of porn guys will watch, specifically an underweight/low healthy BMI to high healthy BMI/overweight, guys watch porn with bigger women, hands down was the end conclusion.

    The other thing to consider though, a lot of those guys are watching porn about bigger girls but not dating them, guys are also feeling pressure from friends to date thin girls.

    What really bothered me about this post, no offense to the OP, but the assumption that eating disorders are to make a person's body appealing to OTHER people. Eating disorders often stem from trauma, and skewed vision of what one looks like, it has very little, at least my eating disorder, had very little to do with society.
    YOUR eating disorder may have come from trauma but look at society and tell me that they have all had traumatic experiences and now the are underweight and unhealthy...
  • FearAnLoathing
    FearAnLoathing Posts: 4,852 Member
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    I dont get looking toward movies,magazines and such and feeling like I have to look a certine way. I have never felt like I need to look like anyone but myself because honestly its impossible to look like anyone but yourself without mass amounts of surgery.
    I read the fashion mags and the gossip mags and have never felt like I needed to be these people or have the body they do even as a teen
  • Lozzy_82
    Lozzy_82 Posts: 324 Member
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    Photoshop.

    No, really. Photoshop.

    Every ad, every billboard, every magazine has been heavily 'shopped. It's not obvious (most of the time), so one is lead to believe that those people actually do look like that. Celebrities and other people in the media are used by society as a marker of what one should aspire to be. Men have Calvin Cline models with their millions of abs. That is attainable. Pretty much anybody can get a 6-pack through work and dedication.

    Women, otoh, have impossible goals to reach. There are a select number of women who can naturally reach the pedestal. The overwhelming majority of women will find it physically impossible to look like someone off of a magazine cover. Those women on the magazines don't even look like the picture. Far too much Photoshop has morphed women into inhuman things.

    When you set physically unattainable goals, which is essentially what society has done through media outlets, then you're just going to fail over and over. Then you're a failure. Then you hate your body because you're not perfect like women in magazines.

    While I think you have a bit of a point on who is controlling the fashion industry, I think that runs secondary to the media's role in setting unattainable goals of beauty for women.

    This is very true. I believe Cindy Crawford once said "I wish I looked like Cindy Crawford"!
  • HealthIsMyHobby
    HealthIsMyHobby Posts: 85 Member
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    the fashion industry and the advertising industry set unrealistic standards. on the fashion runway it's done with makeup, lighting, and tailoring the clothes to fit each model individually. in print and video advertising it's done with photoshop. not even the models look like the manipulated images that are presented.

    that said, i wonder, with so much social pressure to be thin, why do we have an obesity epidemic.

    don't strive for the unrealistic unattainable standard. strive for healthy.
  • ilookthetype
    ilookthetype Posts: 3,021 Member
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    There was a study done a few months back (I heard about it from the Dan Savage Podcast) about what kind of porn guys will watch, specifically an underweight/low healthy BMI to high healthy BMI/overweight, guys watch porn with bigger women, hands down was the end conclusion.

    The other thing to consider though, a lot of those guys are watching porn about bigger girls but not dating them, guys are also feeling pressure from friends to date thin girls.

    What really bothered me about this post, no offense to the OP, but the assumption that eating disorders are to make a person's body appealing to OTHER people. Eating disorders often stem from trauma, and skewed vision of what one looks like, it has very little, at least my eating disorder, had very little to do with society.
    YOUR eating disorder may have come from trauma but look at society and tell me that they have all had traumatic experiences and now the are underweight and unhealthy...

    Sorry, my eating disorder, the eating disorders of the girls in my group sessions/and other friends have a connection to having sexual abuse/rape in our history, eating disorders are a common consequence of such a thing. A true eating disorder is a distorted sense of self image, seeing only fat when looking in the mirror, it has nothing to do with the way other people see them, it's psychological. Maybe YOU should look at society and see how rampant sex crimes/childhood trauma against women are, might make what I've said make more sense. I never said all eating disorders stemmed from trauma, I said often.
  • livnlite
    livnlite Posts: 520
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    Personally, (when it comes to the super model thin look) I think the media has a lot to do with it, probably primarily .. especially when it comes to body image. During the time when women were 'full figured' .. The idols were stars like Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Liz Taylor, Ava Gardener .. just to name a few. Those women were iconic in 'the day. They set the example for women by way of fashion and body image. Now days it's supermodels .. super waify, super thin. The imagery has changed. Coupled with the fact that women's worst critics aren't men .. Women dress to impress OTHER women. I think it is more primal and directly related to competition for a mate.

    Do really think men care if a woman's shoes match her belt, or her purse (or both). More often than not, men look beyond the sexy outfit ... The outfit benefits how the woman feels, differently the man. It makes HER feel sexy .. Makes HIM feel like he's gonna get sex. It's nature's call ... It all has to do with attracting the opposite sex as a mating ritual.

    The man (not all men .. I'm saying for the most part) couldn't care less if it's hanging on her or if it's crumpled on the floor... She tends to think in the moment .... He tends to think a little farther ahead.
  • angelicdisgrace
    angelicdisgrace Posts: 2,071 Member
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    They show us pictures of some woman who just had a baby and put it on US Weekly "HOW SHE LOST THE WEIGHT" well, she has a trainer and a dietitian and it's her job to be a size zero.

    I went NUTS trying to do that, trying to look like that.
    Women are very very hard on themselves.
    I wish the modeling industry would use women who look more "average" in figure.

    I totally hate even looking at those magazines. Oh she dropped her baby weight in two to three weeks. I mean come-on. They don't work or have a "real" family without nannies and cleaning ladies. They can spend all their day with a personal trainer and a personal dietician who probably makes their meals. In real life it's hard. Hell I've been stuck 175 for the past 6 weeks just to gain 8 lbs and that's because I work out the beejezus out of my body anywhere from 5-6 days a week. Anyone that's my mfp friend can see my calories burnt from exercise. I am losing tons of inches and toning up. Still it's impossible for us to compare ourselves to the celebrities and models. I say eff them all and live a healthy life.
  • ItsCasey
    ItsCasey Posts: 4,022 Member
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    I believe that women are the reason that women have eating disorders. Women dress to impress other women and some almost kill themselves so they can be skinnier than other women. Although there are some men out there who like the skin and bones females, I have met many more who prefer curvier women. Who cares if your man comments about "hot" celebrities. We do the same; we may not say it in front of our significant other but, we definitely appreciate the hard abs and muscular built celebrities. :tongue:

    You hit on an interesting point with the competition aspect, i.e. women wanting to be thinner than other women. I think this is a big issue that gets overlooked when people talk about why women have body image problems. It's not necessarily that they want to look hotter for men; it is often because someone at work lost a lot of weight and is getting tons of compliments and attention around the office. Or a female relative who was always bigger than you is suddenly now the same size, and you're not comfortable with that, so you try to lose weight to "beat" her. I have a cousin who is like this. She has always been thin and gorgeous, but when I lost weight and people started saying I was the same size as she is now, she decided she had to start starving herself. It had nothing to do with men or the fashion industry.

    I also think there is a lack of understanding about the difference between fashion models and swimsuit/lingerie models. The models you see on fashion runways are chosen because WOMEN prefer to view clothing worn on very thin frames for whatever reason (as has already been pointed out, studies have shown that when fashion houses use thicker models, their clothing doesn't get the same response from buyers). Swimsuit and lingerie models are the ones who appeal to men. How many straight guys do you know who can name even one of the current top fashion models (e.g. Jourdan Dunn, Karlie Kloss, etc.)? But most of the guys I know, know who Adriana Lima is. And while models like her aren't the least bit fat, they have more "meat on their bones" than fashion models because nobody wants to see a swimsuit on a girl whose sternum is sticking out.
  • Hannah_Banana
    Hannah_Banana Posts: 1,242 Member
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    At the risk of being flamed -

    I have held a theory for a long time that supermodels are so thin because homosexual men are attracted to MALE figures. And when you remove a woman's curves, she looks much like a young man (who hasn't filled out yet). But runway models are a VERY bad thing to judge beauty off of, the reason (according to my runway model friend) is because you aren't showcasing a body, you're showcasing clothing. You're a walking hanger. :ohwell:
  • ladyhawk00
    ladyhawk00 Posts: 2,457 Member
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    This is a potentially good topic with the opportunity for some great discussion, information and insight. We would really like to be able to keep it up. But we can only do that if everyone keeps it respectful and on topic. So please remember forum rules:

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  • ilookthetype
    ilookthetype Posts: 3,021 Member
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    At the risk of being flamed -

    I have held a theory for a long time that supermodels are so thin because homosexual men are attracted to MALE figures. And when you remove a woman's curves, she looks much like a young man (who hasn't filled out yet). But runway models are a VERY bad thing to judge beauty off of, the reason (according to my runway model friend) is because you aren't showcasing a body, you're showcasing clothing. You're a walking hanger. :ohwell:

    I would totally believe this.
  • _beachgirl_
    _beachgirl_ Posts: 3,865 Member
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    This is a potentially good topic with the opportunity for some great discussion, information and insight. We would really like to be able to keep it up. But we can only do that if everyone keeps it respectful and on topic. So please remember forum rules:

    4) Do not attack/slam/insult other users. The forums are here so that members can help support one another. Attacks or insults against each other takes away from the supportive atmosphere and will not be tolerated. You can discuss the message or topic, but not the messenger - NO EXCEPTIONS. If you are attacked by another user, and you reciprocate, YOU will also be subject to the same consequences. Defending yourself, defending a friend, etc. are NOT excuses. Violations of this rule are taken very seriously and may result in being banned without warning! If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all

    Please keep it a civil debate. Thanks for your cooperation.

    Ladyhawk00
    MyFitnessPal Forum Moderator

    Thank you for putting it back up! :flowerforyou:
  • livnlite
    livnlite Posts: 520
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    There was a study done a few months back (I heard about it from the Dan Savage Podcast) about what kind of porn guys will watch, specifically an underweight/low healthy BMI to high healthy BMI/overweight, guys watch porn with bigger women, hands down was the end conclusion.

    The other thing to consider though, a lot of those guys are watching porn about bigger girls but not dating them, guys are also feeling pressure from friends to date thin girls.

    What really bothered me about this post, no offense to the OP, but the assumption that eating disorders are to make a person's body appealing to OTHER people. Eating disorders often stem from trauma, and skewed vision of what one looks like, it has very little, at least my eating disorder, had very little to do with society.
    YOUR eating disorder may have come from trauma but look at society and tell me that they have all had traumatic experiences and now the are underweight and unhealthy...

    Sorry, my eating disorder, the eating disorders of the girls in my group sessions/and other friends have a connection to having sexual abuse/rape in our history, eating disorders are a common consequence of such a thing. A true eating disorder is a distorted sense of self image, seeing only fat when looking in the mirror, it has nothing to do with the way other people see them, it's psychological. Maybe YOU should look at society and see how rampant sex crimes/childhood trauma against women are, might make what I've said make more sense. I never said all eating disorders stemmed from trauma, I said often.

    I agree .. Not all thin people have eating disorders. For some, being thin is a matter of personal choice (driven by imagery and the ideal that they look better thin) .... for others it's phobic (driven by emotion and ideal that they don't want to be fat coupled with what they 'think' they see when they look at their image in a mirror).
  • Iamfit4life
    Iamfit4life Posts: 3,095 Member
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    At the risk of being flamed -

    I have held a theory for a long time that supermodels are so thin because homosexual men are attracted to MALE figures. And when you remove a woman's curves, she looks much like a young man (who hasn't filled out yet). But runway models are a VERY bad thing to judge beauty off of, the reason (according to my runway model friend) is because you aren't showcasing a body, you're showcasing clothing. You're a walking hanger. :ohwell:

    probably true, honestly.
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