Does Being Skinny Equate to Beauty? Sociocultural standards of feminine beauty are presented in almost all forms of popular media, barraging women with images of what is considered to be the “ideal body.” Such standards of beauty are accepted by the majority of women who strive for this unattainable beauty. This vision of beauty is skewed since many women with the “ideal body” are considered unhealthy by health standards. Not only are they underweight, many of them are also malnourished who starve themselves in order to maintain their image of “beauty.” According to those standards of beauty, women feel that they are inadequate and need to change their bodies in order to become beautiful. Some women will go to extreme means to look ideal, such as starting unhealthy diets, taking diet pills, and developing unhealthy eating disorders. I was one of those people who brought into the idea that being skinny is beautiful. However, in the long run I learned that it was a big misconception. Being skinny does not equate to beauty. When I was young, I was not a skinny person. Quite the opposite, I was chubby during the sixth grade. My peers bullied me for being on the heavier side, while majority of my classmates were smaller. They gave me horrendous names and said that I was not pretty because I was fat. This led me to be self-conscious of my image. I was too embarrassed to discuss these unpleasant experiences with my parents. I also did not have a reliable person to talk to. Therefore, food became the only means of comfort from my negative feelings. In the end, I ended up gaining more weight. Since being overweight made my situation even worse, the idea of losing weight started to ground on my mind. Fortunately, I moved to the United States shortly thereafter and was able to have a fresh start. However, I was still plagued with thoughts of losing weight and wanting to become beautiful. I adopted dieting methods; which at the time, I did not realize that they were actually unhealthy means to dieting. For breakfast, I would only eat a banana or another fruit. Lunch consisted a small bowl of rice with vegetables. I would skip dinner and only drink water to fill myself up. I exercised excessively to burn calories. I was happy with the results because I was able to lose 30 pounds within a short amount of time. However, I always felt hungry and I had to fight my insatiable urge to eat. Although I was able to lose weight, my family was extremely concerned with my dieting methods. They would constantly bring my diet up as a topic of discussion at the dining table, no matter what the occasion was. During the family dinners, my diet would be the opening topic and it drove me insane. Since I did not want to listen to their concerns, I ignored them since I wanted a slim figure. In fact, my new friends during middle and high school encouraged my diet. Some of them were also dieting and saw me as a partner heading towards the same goal. Other friends wanted to join us when they saw our outcomes. We encouraged each other when one was behind with their weekly goals. I found that being skinny improved my relations with my classmates and friends. It also helped me boost my self-esteem.
Once I went to college, it was a different environment. I became more self-conscious with my body image. I felt nervous and anxious to step into this difference. With those anxieties, I was obsessed by the need of being skinny, especially when beautiful skinny girls surrounded me. Despite how much weight I lost since high school, I felt that it was not enough. I felt inferior to others and wanted to be even skinnier in order to fit in. Due to my trauma back in the sixth grade, I was afraid of other’s judgments so I kept those goals to myself. I was paranoid about people talking behind my back and laughing about my weight.
I began dieting again once college stated and tried to make new friends. I was never able to make close friends since I was always afraid of