Body image issues are more common in the world than anything. And yet, we feel insecure just talking about our them! So how do we fight them? TV star Lili Reinhart offers a solution in her motivational talk.
Lili Reinhart Delivers an Inspirational Speech About Body Image Issues
Reinhart, who stars on girly TV series Riverdale as Betty Cooper, shared her own insecurities about weight-gain and her experience about needing to look skinny as an actress. She talked about how the media makes women insecure. But in actuality, she mentioned that the insecurity just stems from the hundreds of years of conditioning women have received from society. The society, she mentioned, expects us to not only be physically perfect, but also apologize for those days when we don’t look perfect. We have a need to explain to people that we don’t usually look like this, she added in the talk.
Reinhart has spoken previously about topics like self-acceptance and online harassment on multiple occasions both on Twitter and through speeches. “We aren’t born with these insecurities. We are told to be insecure about certain things,” she said.
Why Do Women Feel Insecure?
As far as human evolution goes, women have been conditioned to compete for men’s attention, to take our species forward. No wonder we feel the need to look “better” than others. But why do we feel so negative about our bodies all the time?
Traditional media puts a lot of pressure on women to look perfect when they feature models who are skinny, whose every feature is perfect. They have always featured celebrities with tiny waists on magazine covers. And all the ad in magazines feature airbrushed skin and flawless figures. And this trend is not going anywhere.
How Does Our Magazine Feel About Body Image Issues?
Body positivity is a topic that we at ShilpaAhuja.com have spoken about countless times in the past. My article titled, ‘Why Do I Have to Be Judged?‘ first started a conversation about body positivity on ShilpaAhuja.com. “Why are girls judged for not looking beautiful? Why can’t they get away with looking ugly? Who decides what is ugly or beautiful?” and goes on to ask, “Who makes the rules about being normal? Why do they have to be what is considered “normal” by everyone?”
“When 90% of the women who’re featured look a certain way, women pick up signals of what’s considered normal, from a very young age. This ideal body image is difficult to shed even when they get older,” I talked about the society’s expectations that give rise to body image issues, in my article ‘Body Positivity Movement: New York Fashion Week Joins In.‘
Body Image & Inclusivity
Our magazine is a big supporter of this cause, being all about inclusivity, since we believe that fashion is for all body types, that everyone should be able to wear whatever they want without being judged. Personally, I’ve even spoken about this cause outside of this website.
“What magazines feature makes a subconscious mark on the young women’s minds,” I mentioned in a Quora answer about this topic. “Fashion magazines have the responsibility to make sure they’re not just featuring healthy women, but also advising on health and being good role models themselves.”
Our colleague Nishita even made a point about cosmetic surgery in her article titled ‘Bella Hadid Surgery: How Fashion Industry Promotes Body Image Issues‘, “The reason why things like nose contouring exist on such a large scale is because of more and more celebs opting to go under the knife, all for an idealistic nose. If they didn’t promote such things, no one would give a damn about what their nose looks like.”
How Should We Fight Body Image Issues?
I liked Lili’s idea. She encouraged the audience to strike a balance between posting images that feature contoured skin and picture-perfect bodies, and to show the flaws we all have on the days we don’t feel perfect! That way, we’ll all be able to relate to one another, and start feeling a little bit more real…
Overall, it’s so refreshing to have celebs like Lili Reinhart and Emma Watson who can be in the news for something productive and positive instead of what they wore or who they dated. Which is all the media talks about as far as female celebrities are concerned. isn’t it?
So what do you think? Do you agree with Lili Reinhart about fighting body image issues? Have you ever (or frequently) felt insecure? Do you feel that media is to blame? Or we are the problem when we judge other women or criticize the celebs’ bodies instead of supporting them?
Lemme know below! And share your own “flawful” images on Instagram by tagging me @shilpaahujadotcom?
Shilpa Ahuja the editor-in-chief of ShilpaAhuja.com, which she founded with the goal of inspiring confidence in the modern working woman through fashion. Other than defining the direction of the magazine, she also writes about fashion & beauty trend forecasts, industry analysis, and opinions.
Shilpa’s work has been published in the University of Fashion blog and Jet Airways magazine. She is also an artist, illustrator and cartoonist. She is also the creator of Audrey O., a comic series that represents the lifestyle of millennial women. She enjoys creative writing and world travel. Her art has been exhibited at Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Aroma Hotel, Chandigarh and been published in Chandigarh Times.
Originally from Chandigarh, Shilpa also has a degree in architecture and has worked in interior project management. She is also the author of the book “Designing a Chinese Cultural Center in India”. Shilpa has a Masters in Design Studies degree from Harvard University.
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