Mandi Prince/ Roundup
If you really knew me, what you would know is that I wanted to hug my TV a few weeks ago, and then I wanted to scream at it and cry. No, not because of the Dodger game, but because of America’s Next Top Model and the Wendy Williams Show, both for the same reason: body image.
On Wednesday Sept 15,Tyra Banks eliminated hopeful model Anamaria Mirdita, a 19-year-old girl from Queens, New York, because she was too skinny. Hallelujah, it seems we are making progress with the media. However, don’t applaud just yet because the very next day Wendy Williams became the fat police and bashed Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi from the show Jersey Shore, stating, “I know when you’re a celebrity, you eat a lot of creamy, good meals, and all I’m saying is you could stand to lose a few pounds.” Now I’m crying.
What kind of mixed messages are we receiving?
We as college students don’t have control over much, but what we do have control over is our body. Whether you want to believe it or not, we are defined by the way we look and we judge based on the way others look.
Take a look around you, in your classroom for example; I’ll bet that you have judged at least one person in that room based on the way they look because there is always that one person who is overweight, and that one person who is really skinny.
Why out of all people do we notice them? Because that is what we were trained to look for, by media, our peers and society. We are taught at a young age that being skinny is beautiful and being overweight is ugly. I can’t even being to explain how many times there have been reports about kids being picked on and bullied at school because of their weight.
This is becoming more of a problem than people realize.
For example, I work at an elementary school and I recently had a student come over to me to ask for help using her Weight Watchers Calculator; she needed to know how many graham crackers she could eat that would only cost her 2 points. She is only 7 years old. The worst part is the only reason she was on a “diet” was because the third-grade girls wouldn’t let her cheerlead with them because she was too “fat.”
The real underlying issue of our body image isn’t because of weight, it’s yearning to belong, to be liked and envied. The best way to do that is to take control over yourself and live your life, not the life of those who tell you how to live (except for Oprah).