What have we become as a society? A nineteen year old has just come to the world, sobbing about what social media has done to her. She stopped eating. She based her self worth on likes and followers. She looked up supermodels sizes, and compared them to her own.
Maybe, it might not be social medias fault, some may think. Maybe it was a form of an eating disorder that got out of hand.
But if it was an eating disorder, why did this young teenager gain so many followers?
Because we, as a society, see the ill as beautiful. We romanticise mental disorders, whether it be depression, or anxiety, or an eating disorder.
She was and maybe still is very sick. But when I first saw her, without any context, I thought
Wow. She is beautiful. Her body is perfect. I wish I looked like her.
We, as a society, are conditioned to think this. I know some people are naturally slim and slight. But supermodels, Instagram models, most are sick. I am naturally slim and slight, but I don't have supermodel measurements, and I have a barely healthy bmi. That being said, it can be assumed, backed up with statistics, that most of these models are underweight.
And we find this beautiful.
We drove her, I think. In a way, social media heightened her disorder. We encouraged it because we thought it was beautiful.
But just like she said, it's not real.
Dear Becky; A new series I intend to continue. Becky is a big part of my life. Becky is my anxiety. If you have read my previous blog posts, you will know that naming my anxiety has given me great control and power, but Becky is still alive and can be strong. I find great comfort in writing things down. It helps me to think rationally, something Becky fights hard to prevent. Dear Becky will be my writing to Becky, to counteract the anxiety that she's called me. I will write to see what is real and what is Becky fuelled. Will you find it interesting? Maybe not. Unless you're interested in a mind corrupted with anxiety. I know my mental health is the most important thing, and if it helps me cope with life, then that's amazing. If someone reads this, and learns how to deal with their own mental illness or learns how to understand someone in their life with a mental illness, then even better. Dear Becky, You were strong today. I don't know why. But I didn't let ...
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