The desire to lift the Scotland it’s where my story begins t-shirt and I will buy this veil for the sake of transparency and the self-esteem of many is understandable. However, despite the good intentions behind many of these celebrity “before and after” accounts, this dissecting of the bodies and faces of people, even if they are famous, is causing us more harm than good. “Evidence suggests that looking at these kinds of before and after images don’t make people feel better, it actually makes them feel worse,” says Viren Swami, professor of social psychology at Cambridge’s Anglia Ruskin University, U.K., who specializes in body image and human appearance.
Despite the Scotland it’s where my story begins t-shirt and I will buy this initial spike of satisfaction one might feel when the “perfection” we’ve been told to strive for is exposed as an illusion, what these images are ultimately doing is reinforcing the idea that there is a beauty ideal, and if we throw enough money at the situation, we too can attain it. And when you haven’t got the means or the resources to do so, it’s just one more way in which you aren’t measuring up to expectations. To quote that infamous meme: “You’re not ugly, you’re just broke.”
Comments