Skin can't be good or bad: what body neutrality is and solutions that change the rules of the game

Photo: Today's Parent

Oleksandra Voronina

The onset of the vacation season carries a whirlwind of anxiety and the awakening of complexes in relation to your body. For many girls and women, it has become the norm to think about "preparing" for the vacation season and a swimsuit, returning a "summer" body and setting their target weight, and when they can't reach the "standard," a feeling of guilt and inferiority comes because of the discrepancy to the "ideal" built in the mind. Probably, we wouldn't find a girl who at least once in her life didn't criticize her body, didn't call herself ugly, and after eating a cake, didn't count grams and calories and blame herself for this "weakness."

Although a possible exacerbation of complexes occurs in summer, for many, the issue of appearance and its improvement isn't limited to three months a year. We think about our appearance at least every time we look in the mirror, starting from the morning hour brushing our teeth, and ending with preparing for some important event or meeting. Our inner voice can find many flaws, and make us doubt ourselves, and sometimes it happens that a person from the outside manages to find serious flaws in our appearance, simply voicing it in our faces. In many cases, the situation comes to the point of self-harm due to pressure to conform to an ephemeral ideal (for example, bulimia) or outright discrimination from a pedestrian lookist.

Feeling constant self-disappointment and oppressive guilt, one wonders: what are the origins of the beauty standards that make us all feel inferior, and why are we so concerned about them? Why is this a problem and is there any solution? We tried to analyze this issue in the new Rubryka article.