There’s been a lot of press lately about magazines perpetuating false and misleading images of women’s bodies. Countless numbers of people have called for reform or at least an attempt, by the marketing world, to embrace #RealWomen and change their practices–especially as it pertains to ads targeting young women. Dove has their #RealBeauty campaign, while Nike launched their own campaign featuring women athletes of all shapes and sizes. Yayyy, we’re making progress, right?! While my age group is notably pushing for transparency, there’s a definite trend in the 18-30 year old set that is fully entrenched in the photoshop mentality! If you’ve ever taken a glimpse on Instagram, you know what I mean. You can find image after image of young women in nothing more than their bras and panties, showing more T and A than you would normally see outside the privacy of most people’s bedrooms. Unless women have somehow, overnight, morphed into genetically mutated beings resembling oversized-bumble bees–with their big butts and tiny waists–I’m just not seeing them in the real world! I’m not saying they can’t exist, but to the extent you see photos plastered on Ig, they are certainly not a dime a dozen.
I’m a big people watcher. HUGE. At the gym, the grocery store, Starbucks, my daughters’ high school, the Little League field, the beach. I mean, I LOOK at people and EVERY TIME I do I come to the same conclusion: “Yep, people come in all shapes and sizes”, but not THAT shape! I mean, am I the only one who’s noticed this? Other than Kim K and maybe someone with a significant amount of plastic surgery, the body type I’m describing isn’t as common as those accounts on Instagram would lead you to believe. There are some pages I USED to follow that were the WORST perpetrators of distorted body image posts that I–an almost 50 year old woman–have ever seen! I have three daughters, all with Ig accounts. If I can see this crap, so can they. The difference for me is that I can look at those images and call BS, but do they?
I have no desire to be “Instagram Famous” or “Anything Else” famous for that matter. I don’t seek fame or notoriety, but I am passionate about helping people–something that is pretty much hard-wired into my DNA. I work hard to be healthy and I know many AMAZING women in men who do too. I mean, who doesn’t want to look good and feel good? Health isn’t just what’s on the outside, it’s really about what’s on this inside and the crap I see on Instagram isn’t healthy. It’s damaging…damaging to the young women trying to promote what they are not and damaging to the young women trying to live up to an artificial standard.
I’m posting this side-by-side to prove my point. Photo on the left: Last year, professional photo shoot, no retouching or photoshop. Photo on the right: Same photo after I spent $3.99 on an App called #Facetune I stink at using the app (as the fuzzy after pic will attest) but even as a first time user (who skipped over the complimentary tutorials), I was able to enlarge my glutes, narrow my waist, increase my bust and quad size and smooth out my rib cage, all while making dinner for my kids and helping them with their homework. For a whole $1.99 more, I could unlock “advanced tools” and give myself a complete makeover, highlight my hair, get rid of lines, wrinkles and blemishes and whiten my already white teeth!!! LOL.
We are all born with certain body types and often times, no matter how hard we work, we’re never going to look any different than our genetics will allow. I thought about my T-Rex arms as I wrote that. They’ve certainly come a long way from the sticks they started out as, but there are days I still fantasize about having arms like #KellyRippa, but only Kelly Rippa can have her arms. I’m Trish Marmo and my arms are unique to me. Instead of trying to be someone I’m not, I need to be happy with my own body and who I am. It’s not easy, I’ll admit. Some days I struggle with my own internal dialogue…something you’d think I’d be the master of by now, but it does take time and practice.
I worry about my daughters too and their own self-image. I want them to love their own shape and feel good about their own bodies, without trying to live up to a fantasy ideal. It’s a conversation we need to keep having, not just with our daughters and sons, but with ourselves. Think about that the next time you scroll through Instagram and start to compare yourself to what you find there. #loveyourself #embraceyou #keepitreal #Dove #Nike #instagram #instafamous #Ig #Photoshop #App #FitnessMOMents