Tonight at dinner my daughter loudly said, “Mom I cannot eat that, it will make me fat!”
My jaw dropped to the ground.
My eyes filled with tears.
I felt angry at my husband laughing as though what she said was cute and funny.
My husband has no idea what women go through or how the media makes us think we should look. As a woman, I know all about body image, self esteem issues and struggling with weight. I understand how the media portrays women in music, television advertisement and magazines. I don’t like it, I hate it actually. I hate that somehow my innocent daughter who is only 3 years of age has said she will get fat if she eats something. It goes to show how things sink in to our children’s brain and just how impressionable they are.
I’m like any other woman, I like to look nice. I like to feel good in my clothing and see myself in the mirror and feel good about what I see. This is not easy because I’ve been brainwashed over the years but I’m working hard to rework my own messed up head about self image and feeling good about my body. I’ve personally struggled with being heavy, losing weight and then gaining it again. I’ve been everything from a size 16 to a size 6 and it’s hard to figure out the best size for my body because not one size seems to make me happy.
I’d really rather not have my daughter struggles like this. I’d love her to accept her body image and love who she is.
Magazine’s show skinny women and who doesn’t want to be skinny? Magazine’s often show women in clothing that are
not the same age as me or who has had children. They’ve also been air brushed! When White Cloud decided to show real women, the mom bloggers they’ve developed a relationship with in magazines for their product advertisement and marketing, I was flattered. Why me? I’m nobody special? I have cellulite, far from perfect hair, a scar in between my eye brows, my feet are too big and my tummy is jiggly! I am immediately down on myself while describing who I am but what I love about White Cloud is they know I’m real and so are the other mom bloggers – which is exactly how advertising should be. Real people who aren’t airbrushed and changed! When you see my advertisement in All You, you see Sommer and though I would have liked they airbrush more on the arms, the chin and take a few inches off the stomach – it wouldn’t be me.
I want my daughter to be real and not worry about being skinny or fat but rather healthy and happy. I want her to see advertising with real people. I want her to see beauty as more than just what you see at first glance.
What do you want for your daughter? What are your thoughts on media and images and how they influence our children?
