I am fat, I am dark skinned, I have hairy legs, I am not tall, my nose is small, my hair is not long …
Each of us have our own images and thoughts on our body and physical appearance. Every time we look at the mirror we have some judgement on our physical look whether positive or negative.
I personally feels it important to connect with oneself andbe aware of what we think/feel about our body. In Thought club I conducted a session on connecting with our own body image.
We began with drawing ourselves, drawing our bodies. How do I think I look ? How to I think other’s think I look? and lastly How do I want to or wished I looked.
After spending time with our thoughts on our body, we tried to articulate the same and share with a person we trust. Many times in a social environment ourphysical appearance is teased about or commented upon , this blocks us from sharing with people how we actually feel about our looks.
I also questioned if we have become slaves to a definition of beauty – whether male or female. Have we bound ourselves with a perception of a perfect body and what is that doing to us?
Taking this session one step further, with the teenagers of Aarohi, we discussed how media and society are influencing our definition of beauty. We also questioned ourselves, Why is it important for me to be tall or light skinned or beautiful or cool?
We saw some movies trailers and advertisements, we observed the actor and actresses – How do they look, what do they wear, what kind of things do they use. Media in every form, be it an newspaper advertisement or a movie on TV apart from serving their purpose of entertainment or advertising they are also sending us a subtle message on what is a beautiful or handsome person. Who is a cool and modern person.
We saw a video on how the beautiful model on the billboard advertisement is actually faked, she had layers of make up on and then her photo was photo shopped. We are aspiring to look like someone who is not even real. This was a shock to some. Link to the video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U
How has the society influenced the way we look at ourselves? Wow! you have grown tall, you are so fat, girls with short hair are smart and cool, wearing jeans is modern – are these comments common in our society?
To gain acceptance in the society have we agreed to these conditioning’s. Why is it so important to be a tall or thin or cool? In some ways are we are also spreading the same message of beauty through our comments on people?
For many it was an uncomfortable session to discuss how they feel about their body or how they are influenced by media or society but it was a beginning of a discussion.
We ended with a round of sharing one thing we dislike about out physical appearance.