How Many Times Do You Judge Your Body Every Day?
By: Maria Pastor Paz
Tags: Empowerment, Lifestyle, Self Improvement, Women, Culture Change

I would have liked to accept my body since I was a child, but the sad reality it’s I fought all my entire life to see myself pretty and comfortable in my body.

When you grow your social environment unintentionally generate hang-ups, it can start in your family, for example, your brother telling you “you have a big nose” just to tease you. Your neighbour commenting on your weight every time she sees you doesn’t matter if you are thin or fat, with no bad intention. The TV all day showing adverts about the las anti-age cream or the must-have fragrance in which appear an amazing woman (and most of the times unreal women, due to her body is modified by programs) with an impressive body. Then, we have the pressure of the society telling us the body of the adverts is the normal one and we need to archive it, doesn’t matter if our health is in risk, but you have to see yourself that pretty and by consequence, you have to make all it is in your hands to achieve it.

Of course, this situation finished with a big frustration, in which later on you have to work a lot to feel you are good enough as you are.

I have always felt women have much more social pressure than men, respecting to our bodies or ways of being. It’s imperative to achieve that “perfection” that everyone talks about, but nobody has it. Almost all image advertising is aimed at women, although it is true, in recent years the image of men has also begun to have a relevant role in media.

I think social media has a relevant role in this situation as well. The “instagramers” sell their perfect lives and we see that lives as normal. What they don’t tell us is all the process they have to make to upload a picture. They took a thousand pictures, looked for the one that was more or less good, then, they edited until they reflected what they wanted to publicize and finally, they published the picture telling you how amazing a trip, dinner, product, it is and they are. But we need to understand that is a big lie. The big companies instead of doing an advertisement on TV now they do it on Instagram.

I observe since we are children’s gender stereotype messages start, for the girls, we need to reflect a feminine image, do our hair properly, dress like a princess, your our behaviour should be girly. And in the other way around for the boys, being a little mess is fun, your t-shirts will say ‘let’s do this adventure’, don’t cry because this is girls’ staff, you have to be strong. So, as well as us they have a lot of pressure to have a strong image.

Since we are young they teach us to think differently, fortunately, things start changing. A lot of work has been done to make these differences between us disappear and don’t be tagged in any gender aspect, while still a lot to do.

When I have personal image consultations, one of the most important points for me, it is to understand how my clients perceive their own body. That way I can explore their self-esteem and work on it.

Men, in general, don’t have many complexes, they accept their image, trying to take care of themselves and look great but without feeling guilty.

On the other hand, I find many cases in which women judge their bodies in a painful way, from eighteen years old girls who compare themselves with what they see on social media and do not understand why they are otherwise, to mums of fifty years old who needs someone to tell them it’s normal to start having wrinkles, that they have a wonderful body, and that they should stop hiding under clothes that do not highlight how wonderful they are.

Our bodies should be temples of worship, we move hundreds of muscles daily, the heartbeats, our eyes blink, we breath etc. Our body does a million things by itself without us having to worry, even so, we are asking it to reduce the fat that we have in our belly and put it somewhere else that we like more…

For all this and much more, let’s start to appreciate our bodies and who we are. Following some steps, you’ll feel good with yourself again: