Over hundreds of years human beings have formed very stereotypical rules about how an attractive human being is supposed to appear and deviance from those rules are unattractive. Currently television, social network, advertisements give us a feedback of what is more acceptable and desired. The models appear very similar in terms of their appearance. Flawless, perfect shape, hair and also fair. What happens when we are born to look different? What will happen if we do not seem to look like the model on the billboard? Will the society accept us?
Society burdens us with the pressure to appear in a certain way. Along with the billboards, there are parents, friends, siblings, cousins, partner and other relatives. If we look anything beyond the rules we have to endure various funny name callings, jokes and casual remarks.
We start believing that indeed there is something wrong with us; it makes us sad, angry and restless. A lot of time is spent looking through the internet to find out if there is any solution for the problem, “how to look thinner in 14 days?”, “how to make my skin look fairer”, “can I make my pimple disappear in a day?” Such distressing thoughts affect our self-confidence, ability to concentrate and decision making skills.
Since this problem has been there in our society for decades, is there any hope for change? We can begin by bending the “rules”, we have to define attractiveness and beauty in our own way. Someone said “Kindness is beautiful”. Appreciate people when they do something courageous, act responsibly, are honest, own up to mistakes or feed a stray.
We must stop (with compassion) others if we see them name calling, bullying or joking others. If you cannot, make sure you address the victim and have a chat about how courageous and beautiful you found him/her, when he/she faced the bully so bravely.
We can help the world to bend these rules for all of us, as we have all undergone shaming in one way or the other. A positive body image makes us confident and happy.
