How Others See Me Based On My Body

What does someone see when they look into a mirror? Do they really see themselves for who they really are, or do they see themselves in a way that is influenced by their life, whether bad or good? When you look at yourself, whether that is in a picture, a video, or even a mirror, unfortunately, the way that you view yourself will not be the same way compared to how someone else does. In our society, the trend of scrutinizing our bodies and physical attributes** is growing at a drastic rate as humans are becoming harsher in their judgements of themselves and others.

Evidently, most people tend to view themselves in a negative way. Evaluating each blemish, each curve, and each inch of cellulite on their bodies. There are many internal and external factors that influence the way we evaluate ourselves. Some of these factors include the current environmental conditions, your attitude, the people whom you associate with, the beliefs with which you have grown into, and also the influence of media. The objective of this report aims to express my personal experiences of how others view me based on my body, some positive/negative judgements people make based on the way I express myself, and where these judgements really come from. As I begin my day every morning, there is a constant stress associated with looking good. Being a young woman, I always place an emphasis on looking “presentable”. This involves taking a shower every morning, getting dressed to impress, making my hair, putting on makeup, a little bit of jewellery, and just the right amount of perfume. This routine is important to me because when I first meet people, I want their first judgement of me to be something positive.

I’m a 5’2ft, 131 pounds Pakistani with a BMI of 23. 2, I work out about 3-4 days a week and in my free time, I like to figure skate, play soccer, and badminton. In terms of physical health, I would consider myself to be pretty average and in good health. The last time I was in a hospital way two years ago because I had the seasonal flu and with that, came to a high fever, which is quite normal. Since my physical health is quite normal, my body is reflective which means that I have a normal physique. Due to this, I have never really experienced verbal judgements about my body, although people probably make internal judgments all the time. My height seems to be the most judgmental factor in body image. Since I have a shorter height, that means I would be less important than someone taller. I have noticed this when I express my opinion on something and someone taller also give their opinion, they are taken more seriously and are given more responsible characteristics. I have noticed that when I am at the gym, doing sit-ups or yoga, someone may come up to be interested in what I am doing. Someone with this intention will usually go up to someone who looks like they know what they’re doing, I know this because I would do the same thing too, I would ask for guidance from those who look like they have knowledge of the specific actions they take. I believe in treating my body like a temple both physically and in how I present myself. I like to present myself reflective of “looking good” because you can only feel good when you look good and vice versa.

For example, on the weekends I like to dress up and go out with my friends and family. In this case, people would assume that I am active and energetic but, on the weekdays, when I don’t have the time to get ready, people would assume that I am lazy and sluggish. What people disregard is that I am actually a fairly active woman, and this negative judgement is a result of stereotypes. In a society, your body is what you have control over to differentiate from everyone else, which is why your body is a representation of who you are both on a physical and a *mental level. The way that I see my body now is perfection, aside from meeting my personal goals. I can remember when I was thirteen years old, I was getting caught up trying to reach “perfection”. Through my own experiences, I have learnt that trying to reach perfection can be extremely harmful and if taken too far, leads to an endless and slippery path of destruction. As time went on with society daily presenting the ways of society, the unhappiness I felt really started to have a negative effect on me. Throughout high school, I struggled to find “perfection”Based on my own personal experiences, one of my close friends who is at a normal height and weight and despite being completely normal, she wanted to be “skinny”. She’s always telling me how she wants to be skinnier and that would make her happy. This is all due to how society views a woman's body. How a woman needs to have a certain body, body type, and act a certain way. In the past, I have always told her to not think like that and not let the what's normal in “society” control how she is. Unfortunately, my friend took matters too far and actually ended up in the hospital, as she was missing her menstrual periods. She then realized that they were going to keep her at the hospital for another week and she ended up staying there for a total of three weeks. Going through that whole experience with her was very hard to see her in that state and made me even more thankful to always have a positive body image. It's heartbreaking to see that all this pain was inflicted on my friend due to low self-esteem coming from her perception of body image. This just goes to show how badly people “wish” they were something else.

In closing, the body and society are correlated with each other as our body makes every single one of us unique from everyone else. Personal body image is reflective on societies images such as the media, factors that you have grown into, and the people you associate with. If someone has more of an athletic body, they are seen as more confident than someone who is less fit or average looking. These less fit looking people feel less important an ultimately feel the most pressurized from society to achieve this slim and athletic body. This is known as stereotyping when connecting body image to someone's personality and associating certain personality traits only with certain body types. Skin colour is another example of stereotyping in society. For example, if a white woman was standing in an elevator with a black man, she would feel intimidated by the man solemnly due to his skin colour. On the other hand, if it were a white or Asian man, the skin colour of the man would not get noticed. Height is also an important factor to body image. Someone who is shorter may feel less important than someone who is taller. Personally, my height is shorter than most girls my age and that does make me feel less important and tend to be taken less seriously.