What shapes you?
Your personality? Your clothes? Your friends?
Your body?
Many people seem to perceive the latter as the depicting factor of what your being is comprised of.
Who you are.
And although our society has progressed past the skin-and-bone days, many keep finding the faults in every shape and size, whether we spot it on a magazine cover or walking down the street.
If you’re “too skinny,” you’re deemed as carrying an eating disorder; if you’re “too big,” you’re automatically a person who bites off more than they can chew; if you’re “too weak,” you’re incapable of protecting yourself; if you’re “too muscular,” you’re compared to the likes of a meathead.
You get the picture.
It appears we’re trapped in a game of hopscotch that has the blocks circle back into one another, creating an infinite loop of unprovoked judgment that we neither asked for nor wanted to hear. In simpler terms, we’re all fighting for and vying for a perfection that doesn’t exist, and will never exist.
In the past, many critics would get paid to bring the integrity and actions of individuals into question, causing their followers to attack these victims based off of the accusations that they’re promoting an unachievable lifestyle. This aggression tends to be targeted towards the likes of public figures or models, who may appear to encompass an idealistic realm from the outside, but are actually experiencing this hatred that we would feel (but on an amplified level) on the inside.
There is a double standard in these general statements since perfection is subjective: A toned person may be ideal to a short person who may be imperfect to a tan person who may be unrealistic to a blonde person.
It doesn’t matter.
Not one single human is entitled to dictate which image sets the bar for attainable success. To proclaim that certain body types aren’t feasible or aren’t idyllic is obscure, especially since they can clearly be possible if an individual in the flesh (with that same shape, nonetheless) exists.
We, as humans, have no right to degrade that of which is unfamiliar, or different than what is known or what we have. Yes, we are entitled to our opinions, but many people take advantage of this freedom of speech and begin to believe that their thoughts are the only ones just and right once they leave the captivity of our lips. You may never know what a person is going through or what they may have gone through to get to where they are today, and whether it was in a healthy or unhealthy manner. There is already so much to worry about in the world, and of all the things to stress over, our own body (the temple of our lives) is far from the most important, especially if the body you’re dwelling over belongs to someone else.
Simply be-YOU-tiful, and you're already half-way there.