So where do you look to find the perfect balance of being healthy yet also realistic? Believe it or not, not all media is out to destroy our self-perceptions like a fat kid would destroy cake. In fact, I think there are actually some good role models on television today. Take Ellen DeGeneres, for example. Her entire show is about loving life, having fun, and taking care of yourself—not to look perfect, but to feel great. Then, of course, there’s her take on exercise—who can watch the first five minutes of Ellen without standing up and shaking their groove thing? That’s the type of diet and exercise mentality I need.
There’s also the Dove Real Beauty campaign, featuring real women with real curves, being proud of what they look like. Now don’t get me wrong, they look fabulous. But they look normal. In other words, there are no muscles showing through their shiny purple spandex or midriff-revealing tops showing off their size zero waistline. This campaign promotes feeling comfortable in your skin. And I’ll admit it got to me. It made me feel like putting on that white bra and panties and flaunting my stuff. Don’t worry, I didn’t. (Or at least not in front of any people or mirrors!)
The idea here is understanding that my ideal shape and size can be—and probably will be—very different from yours. That said, I still can’t help but be drawn to new diet fads, work out regimens, and cheesy commercials that make me wonder if I can or will ever be that skinny. What is it about society that we can’t shake the desire to be prettier, look younger, and lose weight? I’ve been blaming it on the media but I think that’s debatable. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? (Is it sad if that sparked a fried chicken craving?) Did the media create our perfect-body obsession with their “TrimSpa Baby” and “Have you called Jenny yet?” campaigns? Or did we as a culture—with our neurotic obsession of looking like a Victoria’s Secret model—establish what the goal was and then the media reflected that? Are we driving the media or is the media driving us?
