Why any sort of comparison is never healthy!
lucyRebekahh
January 24, 2017
0 Comments
Whilst reading some articles for my dissertation, I came across a bit of information about social comparison. It suggested that comparing yourself with your peers is just as likely to have a negative impact on your body image as comparing yourself to media content (such as models/celebrities) does. I then read something that suggested that peers have a stronger effect on body dissatisfaction than a professional model and this is because the 'thin-ideal' is seen as more attainable in someone you know/know of compared to someone in the public eye. In other words, you feel as though you are more likely to be able to look like a friend than you are a model/celebrity.
We're all constantly told that comparing ourselves to images in the media is unhealthy as they are unrealistic and not a true representation of men and women in real life. However, I also think it's so important to stress that comparing ourselves to those around us or friends/people we follow online, is just as unhealthy. Features you pick out about someone else that you claim you want or are striving for, are unrealistic, whether or not that person is a photoshopped model or someone you are friends with on Facebook. Just because you know someone in real life does not make comparing yourself with them, anymore rational than comparing yourself to someone on the TV.
We are all different due to a number of different factors but I think one thing that people tend to forget is that these differences are what cause comparing ourselves to one another, such an unhealthy way of living. You will never have the same body as one of your friends, you will never have hair like the person you follow on twitter and you will never diet and exercise enough to look the same as that girl did in an outfit on Facebook.
We can't compare ourselves to peers and friends around us as much as we can't compare ourselves to the models we see in magazines because they are all unrealistic and unattainable. Your body is the way it is due to your genetics. Yes, you can do certain things to adjust your dress size or copy a hairstyle by getting your own hair cut in that way, but it's never going to be the same as that person you compared yourself to.
You can only reach goals that your own body will allow and if that means you have slightly bigger thighs than someone else you know or if that means your stomach isn't as flat as one of your friends, that's okay because that is how your body was designed to be like. You can work so hard to become someone else and to look like someone else's picture you saw on Facebook however, that's never going to happen.
The moment you stop and realise that by comparing yourself to other people only ends in a cycle of endless misery due to how physically impossible it is to achieve, the moment you'll become so much more content with yourself.
Therefore, comparing yourself to a model in a magazine is just as unhealthy as comparing yourself to family, friends or peers you have on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram is. You are never going to look like that person, you're only ever going to be able to achieve what your body allows you to achieve. So instead of comparing yourself and constantly trying to change everything about you, focus on appreciating the body, face and hair you do have. Focus on the way your body is shaped and only pay attention to yourself when you are setting these goals and aspirations to make a change.
With January being that month where everyone is making resolutions to change themselves, take a step back and really think what goals you are setting. I recently watched a video by Lucy Wood on youtube where she emphasised the issue with New Years Resolutions. She mentioned how once she had proposed her own list, she soon realised that she had just picked out all of her insecurities and was claiming she wanted to change them. I agree with her that resolutions should be more focused around positive goals and should be more realistic in terms of making yourself happy, rather than picking out all of the negative things about yourself and insisting you need to change them.
Remember that when you are making those comparisons with celebrities, people online or your friends that you will never be them and they will never be you. Comparing yourself to other people is irrational because you are striving for something that is unattainable. Instead, be happy with the body and traits you have been given and be grateful instead of picking, comparing and trying to change everything.
(photo credit link is here)
