Since going through puberty, girls and boys have both faced the same problem: body image. Publicity has shown us that there is only one type of perfect body image and if you don't have it you should change the one you have. Society is not only prejudging against sexual orientations, race and where you stand on your social ladder but now it is also against what you like and how much weigh. Of course Obesity and improper hygiene are unhealthy and shouldn't be pushed on society but neither should anorexia or body manipulation or the fact that to look good you shouldn't have any extra body fat.
Our generation follows the influence of publicity so when a magazine says that a size two is too fat; it makes you start questioning what you look like. The importance of body image has reached an all time high in our generation and not in a good way. In a poll on www.galluppoll.com asking the American population “Do they think that eating disorders are popular among beings in the U.S?” Sixty percent of the people who took the quiz said yes. We can't blame the publicity on the stars because during many interviews with stars on Access Hollywood they state that their photos are retouched to fit the magazines requirements of the “perfect size”. They think that everyone on their cover must be a size 1 at the most. So when Jennifer Love Hewitt was a size two she was meanly criticized. Magazine editors think that the best way to influence society is by making sure that people think they are too fat, too short, too tall, too skinny, and have too big or little breast. Since we have been able to understand everything around us, society has influenced us to believe that we are not good enough physically if we don't look like the image they project we should look like. We who are skinny sometimes never think we are skinny enough and finish by starving ourselves to death, and we who are full figured never stop wishing to be skinny.
Our society made us people that are not happy with what we look like and can never find acceptance of who we are. Instead of trying to accept who we are, we find ourselves trying hard to be what we might be able to be. We can not only say that the younger generation that is being influenced by the publicity of our society. The two generations before us also, were influenced by the fact that they are not physically good enough. While the younger generation may react to the idea through eating disorders, tanning and physical surgical operations, the older generation reacts through: Botox, face lift, liposuction, and physical chirurgical operations. The younger is more obsessed with how they look physically compared to the stereotype that our society has established for the perfect body. Meanwhile, the older generation is more obsessed is more obsessed with how old they look; the older generation is scared of aging. The older generation wants to look like the younger one, and the people of the younger want to reach the standards (eat less, loose weight, wear tons of make up) that the older ones have established.
I can not permit myself to say that it is only the American society that have raised there people to believe that to be elegant, beautiful or attractive you can not be a plus size. Lydia says: “When I was seven, my mother took me to modeling classes, than dance classes. I was told to not eat too much because I risk gaining weight, I was told constantly to work out because I was getting belly fat.” I can't deny that I am not obsessed with my weight like many of the people in my generation. But I can't say that it's my fault. If you were raised being told not to eat too much, to work out so you can keep your abs, or you can't wear that because it is not made for people of your size. How can you not become someone who's obsessed by how they appear physically? It's no wonder that we have so many people that are suffering from an eating disorder or obesity. Our society has generally become materialistic, shallow and conceited during a period when how we look is the least of our problems. Instead of pushing our descendants to become college graduates, entrepreneurs, successful lawyers and doctors or even pushing them to find a cure for aids, cancer or Alzheimer's, we are pushing them to become anorexic, bulimic, obese, shallow conceited and narrow minded human beings. Our moral standards are at their lowest, and all we find necessary to do is feed these young, innocent and pure minds with artificial standards, Appearance does count, but physical appearance is now dominating our society. People are now asking:” What should I wear to my interview instead of what should I say”. As society evolves, we are becoming more and more shallow and conceited. From the belief of Adam and Eve (who didn't wear clothes) or the belief of evolution to us: who spend more money on physical wants than survival needs.
I am not saying that people should not care about washing their hair, buying clothes or staying healthy. I am just saying that those basic standards with which we started with have evolved in a more dangerous and selfish way. We care more about how we look that what we want for our future. Some people may say that we just prefer focusing on the less important things because facing the important issues is just too hard. Me, I put it in a different way I think that we are focusing on the less important things because as are generations developed we have grew a lack of courage to face things that are important.