The phrase "only dogs like bones" has been following me around on the internet for what feels like decades. Go on any accomplished fitness guru's Instagram right now and you will see this comment at least three times under a picture they have posted, followed closely by the worst of the worst: "Eat a burger".
Anyone who has read a newspaper or watched This Morning at least once in the past six years will know that as a society, we love to blame the media for the body image issues every teenage girl experiences. From Vogue to Victoria's Secret to even our childhood favourite dolls, such as Barbie, are blamed for the dull moments we spend, dipping celery into fat-free salad cream with one hand, entering the calories you have consumed within the last 38 minutes into your food diary with the other. Putting some logic into the matter, anyone can see that Miranda Kerr is the main reason why we hate our own bodies. How dare she work her tiny butt off in the gym everyday, take care of herself and eat some kale while she's at it? Who does she think she is, going around, looking healthy, and flaunting the amazing figure she works hard to maintain?
What I just said sounds ridiculous because it absolutely is.
It isn't the pictures of a thousand beautiful girls we save onto our phones with hopes of motivation that pushes us into a disturbed view of our bodies. Nor is it looking through magazines which have pictures of swimwear models, watching movies where the pretty girl is always the skinny girl, and not even how disproportionate Barbie is. It's the girls we meet in school, telling us wearing a certain size of clothing is "disgusting". The petty arguments we have with people we don't know and realising over and over again that "fat" is the worst thing a girl can be called. It's not the media that provides otherwise healthy girls with confidence issues, but the real world that does, because telling someone "only dogs like bones" makes them feel exactly like that: A bag of bones for a dog to play with until it loses its taste. And we know this, too, because the reason anyone makes that kind of remark on someone else's appearance is due to the hundreds of words that have been said to them, making them feel just as worthless as that bag of bones.
So, why do we do it? Why do we insist on putting each other down everyday, instead of accepting others as they come? I know that my worth doesn't come from the amount of burgers I eat, or what cup size my bra is. Yet, it's taken me years and years- and even a few sessions of therapy- to realise that what I do and don't eat isn't what is going to make me happy in the future.
Maybe this was a slightly too deep and overwhelming topic to kick off my blog with, but I'd love to hear your views on this subject, so, let me know!
- B.W.