A recent Ohio State study found that fashion magazines keep attracting audiences, no matter how thin the models are in those magazines.
When I read the study’s summary on OSU’s website, what first came to my mind was, “I am tired of someone saying this, even if the researcher is an admirable professor.”
As a girl living in a society that believes being thin is being beautiful, there seems to be no way we can get rid of the message. No matter how much we tell ourselves that thin is not a good thing and a normal-sized body is better, when we see a girl wearing a dress that we could not wear because of our normal-sized body, it is not a good feeling.
Girls like to look beautiful. It makes us feel happy and confident. We want to wear all of the clothes we see from the fashion magazines, because it really makes us feel good. This is not a thing to feel bad about, because this is who we are. Being beautiful is not a superficial thing. It is a natural thing.
This is why I am tired of people saying that fashion magazines create a “thinspiration” that makes girls have an unrealistic idea about their body image. I call that unrealistic idea a dream, a dream to become beautiful.
It is just like when poor people dream of being rich, or a person not in a relationship wants to be in one. We cannot say that dreams are bad. Otherwise, where is the American dream idea coming from? Why are there so many people from foreign countries who to become American citizens? Dreams help people become confident and earn a better life.
However, we also have reality. Reality makes us frustrated and also dissatisfied. Some people do not see the difference between dreams and reality.
I take “thinspiration” as a way to make my life more admirable. For example, I want to look like the model in the fashion magazines, but if not, it’s OK. I do not want to do everything just to make myself look like the model I see in the magazines, because being myself is more important.
As you know, today’s society takes thin as beauty, but who knows in the future? Maybe in the future people will think of normal-sized bodies as beautiful. One thing I know I can do well for now is to accept who I am.
Dreams can be inspiring, but they also can be hurtful. However, if you know who you are, it does not matter how thin the model is in the magazines — because you know they look beautiful, but you are beautiful, too.
