Making it better for our young girls
Why do women want to have perky breasts, whoever said women’s breasts have to be standing at attention?
Why is it this the body image stereotype that young girls and we as women use as guidelines to us having a perfect body? Aren’t we making it difficult for ourselves when we do that?
Not all women are the same body size, or type for that matter. We come in all different sizes and shapes. Whenever you see one of those makeover shows with a plastic surgeon working on a woman’s breast, by the time they’re finished, the woman’s new breasteses (and I like to say it that way! Haha) are practically at her throat! Why is that?
I’m not going to lie, I don’t like the fact that my girls are slumping right now (like you need that body image of me in your mind!). Yeah, three kids and *cough, *cough, lbs of being overweight does wore a body out. And you know how that is girls? We do want our bodies to look good. Looking good after all is a wonderful moral booster.
However, in this age of making ourselves over, and body image and motivational boosters of whatever kinds, aren’t we holding ourselves up to a mirror that is too rigid? The fact that “America”, and I use that word quite loosely, thinks that if you don’t have perky breasteses, and you’re not a size 2, you’re not beautiful.
Do you think it was a woman who came up with this idea? I don’t think so! I know there’s a man behind that thought. Saying this doesn’t mean that I’m a feminist who hate men, far from it. I’m a liberal thinker with feminist views on some things and I love men!
However, I’m thinking about those little girls out there who use this type of thinking as their motivation for not for not eating properly because they might get fat, for not allowing themselves to even go through puberty in peace. Because not only do they have to deal with the images they see in magazines, on the television screen and from their peers at school; they also have to deal with parents who call them fat and give them a hard time.
My 17-year old daughter told me about friends whose parents think they are fat and they can’t eat certain things or they get cursed at by their own parents. These girls are in no way fat! These are young girls who are reed thin! What the heck is going on out there parents?!
I know how difficult it is to see yourself as unattractive if you don’t fit the image of that stereotype that is out there. And I’m not advocating having us women, or our young girls, as obese people, not at all, that in itself would be bad for our health.
I’m advocating that we allow ourselves to accept who we are and what we look like and love ourselves. It’s ok if you want to make yourself look better. I want to make myself look better; so I’m on a workout plan right now, one of my own choosing and not a rigid one at that.
We as women have to be there for our girls. We cannot let issues we have with ourselves tarnish them or else they will be just as obsessive, perhaps more so. We have to teach them to accept who they are and if they want to change, then do it for themselves, not because some guy or some magazine said so.
I tell my girls they are beautiful often. My little four-year old told me the other day that two little girls in her Pre-K class told her that she wasn’t pretty. She felt really down about it too. The nerve of them! I spent a half hour talking to her, bringing her sprits up. I had to point out all her features and tell her how beautiful she is. This made her happy. Do you see how bad it is?!
When little four year olds can tease each other because of their looks, it is bad! We definately have to do something to nip this in the bud, not just mom, but dad too. There are some dads out there who let their daughters feel less than they are. They criticize them and call them names, not a pleasant thing for a girl to go through. We have to reinforce positive thinking in our future women. The time is now people, it's never too late!
One day last week when I picked my four-year old up, I said to her, ‘hello beautiful’ and gave her a big kiss. She gave me a big smile and repeated to me as we walked out the door of the daycare. “You called me beautiful mommy”. I said, ‘yes you are and don’t you forget it!’