Body Image Self-Descriptors and Diversity

Have you guys seen or heard of TEDx Talks before? They’re absolutely brilliant.  They are essentially short and poignant talks, on topics from society, to science, to global issues, and absolutely everywhere inbetween! They are dedicated to spreading and sharing ideas around the world (creating deeper understandings, changing attitudes, changing lives and eventually, changing the world).

It is one of my aims to try and listen to more, my goal at the moment is at least one a week! So, with that being said, one of the very first TED Talks I ever listened to is one that I find INCREDIBLY interesting.

  

Her first minute or so really caught my attention, challenged my ideas and introduced me to the concept of self-descriptors.  It also helps that her confidence is KILLER. 

I know that some of you may not get around to watching this talk straight away, so take a read of these:

  

Via

YES, LILLIAN!

She's right. We, as a society, place such connotations on specific words; I'm guilty of it, I am not the tallest person by any means haha, I'm most definitely a bit of a shorty - and although there are times where I will joking or genuinely complain about it, at the end of the day - it's a self-descriptor. Nothing wrong with that.

I think I found this talk incredibly interesting because, as much as I do believe that what she's saying is valid, not everyone is as confident as her when it comes to their "thing" that deviates from body image societal expectations.

For a while when people would say to me I'm short I wouldn't like it, even though it is a self-descriptor (I think I just wanted to be taller - society's typical beauty standards speaking there, I reckon), but I will say I'm definitely much better at owning it now. 

But, what the above has taught me, is even though something may seem to be a self-descriptor for another individual, be mindful of how they may feel about it. Be sensitive and respectful of potential insecurities. 

At the same time, maybe our society could be doing a better job in getting rid of those insecurities. She continues her talk to mention a study called, 'Visual Diet versus Associative Learningas Mechanisms of Change in Body Size Preferences'.  

Via

Basically, "The more we see one kind of body, the more we like that kind of body." I think we would all know that tall and skinny is the kind of body we tend to see in media all the time, but recently lots of people in the spotlight have been embracing curves and more girls are wanting that now as well. Lillian said, the more body diversity that is shown to us, the more it's normalised, the more people will feel comfortable in accepting whatever they are. ❤️ 

'Seeing body diversity, makes us more comfortable with diverse bodies'. 

Ultimately, her message that you can be happy with your body no matter what it looks like is a welcome reminder of just how important positive body image is. 

She is socially significant and she's sharing that, and that is so brave.

P.S. If you guys do watch the video, how brilliant is the idea behind 'Courage Reference' - can you think of one for yourself? ☺️

New blog post will be up next wednesday!

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Have a great rest of the week!

❤️, Raashi