Photo by randomthinking on Unsplash
You’re standing in front of the bathroom mirror, pinching together the little fat you have yet again, the minuscule layers presenting as ‘belly rolls,’ convincing yourself that you’ll never find love, that you’ll never be good enough for anyone, deeming your barely aged, adolescent body “obese”. Yet, no one comes to your aid; for why should they? You can always be skinnier.
These are the ideals perpetrated by the platforms that many young adolescent teens have deemed their saving grace, their shot in the dark. It’s not surprising—misery often loves company—just as how many teens usually find themselves heard through the brazen, yet somehow undetected, barring conformities presented to them by social media platforms. They form communities, dedicated to helping each other lose weight, promoting weight loss diets and exercises, setting constrictive regulations on anything and everything of substance: “no eating after six o’clock,” “drink water and chew gum to quell your hunger,” etc. Such abnormalities are often extremely harmful, especially in the face of young adolescents plagued with what’s famously known as body dysmorphia.
The weighted force behind such a prompted descent into self-hate remains a mystery no longer: comparison, with a touch of conformity and belittlement. Supermodels, “looksmaxxers,” and all such demographics possess very prevalent and very influential platforms in social media. From skin and bones to hourglass bodies, all such ideals possess one common factor: skinny culture–the overbearing, incessant need to be thin. What about the recognition and representation received by chubby demographics, if there are any at all? Compromised, by dark humor, followed by a side of internalized fatphobia. “Big back, bigging out…” etc, such rhetoric all possess the same punchline: fat people. Mainstream humor has once again proven to successfully encapsulate the ridicule faced by some minor demographic— not only encapsulating it, but capitalizing on it— once again, finding a way to poke fun at another, not taking into account the devastating, self-deprivating side effects of such contentions.
Through all this turmoil, beauty standards haven’t been the only thing on the rise, however. Insecurities, dysmorphia, but worst of all, the profit margin provided by companies preying on such vulnerabilities have also gone up. Filters, to cover up your imperfections, de-bloat pills, to snatch your waist, baby! marketed towards teens— so entranced with the idea of becoming skinny, so desperate to look like that one girl on their screens, that they fail to acknowledge the girl in the mirror. “Comparison is the thief of joy,” they say. Well in this instance, it’s the thief of the livelihood and well being (physical AND mental) of millions of adolescents all around the world. Throughout time, #SkinnyTok has been seen to influence the rise of eating disorders worldwide, with many instances resulting in hospitalization. “You’re not hungry, you’re just bored.”
So now, despite the copious amounts of fat-phobia and ridicule having been repackaged as self-care being shoved down our throats, let us look to a future in which all bodies may be celebrated and accepted; not offered pitiful smiles, or masqueraded support; not just for you, your neighbors, your friends, but also for the innocent adolescence still being indoctrinated by such rhetoric.
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