Images are creations not reality, and this is especially true for what we see in fashion or publicity. Is not necessarily a bad thing, since illusion is one of the main ingredients of artistic creation. On the other hand, it becomes an abusive tool when is used to feed on the insecurities of people to make them buy a certain product.

While is not bad or unnecessary to criticize the fashion, editorial and publicity industries for imposing impossible body standards, you should ask yourself: Why should I hold myself to those standards? You can shift the responsibility to yourself and by doing so you gain control over your body image. The only standards you should have when it comes to being happy about your body are your own, and of course health.

Artistic creation is pertinent to the conversation since Art has allowed us to have a record of aesthetic body standards in previous eras, from prehistoric societies, Greeks, baroque, etc. The first lesson to learn is that having an “ideal body” is not particular to our contemporary society. Second lesson is that they are ideals and not realities. From ‘rubenesque’ figures or Ingres’ odalisques, they all respond to the artistic will of the artist. To the trained eye is easy to spot the body modifications that do not correspond to reality.

Those aesthetic ideals reflect on the values and needs of the time, might they be fair or unfair.  It is important to take into consideration that ideal does not reflect the taste of everybody.

This is especially true for contemporary society. For thousands of years, at least when it comes to women, the main component of the ideal of beauty was the possibility of bearing children. Thus youth and generous proportions  (specially around the hips) were unequivocal signs of beauty.  These signs of beauty are called, for scientific purpose, ornamentation, and refer to hips and breast.

In our contemporary society we are constantly under the impression that these curves around the body of women that constitute ornamentation have gone out of fashion.  An overall sense that curviness has been hijacked and substituted by impossible small waists, and plummeted BMI’s (Body mass index).

To address this issue I would like to turn to neuroscientists Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam that published a book on ‘desire’ called “A billion wicked thoughts”.  In their book they make the point that magazines and publicity that often feature women with a lower-than-average BMI –such as Vogue or In Style– are targeted to women, not men.

According to their studies, what men search in the privacy of their house, tells a very different story. It actually proves that when it comes to desire ornamentation and male visual cues of arousal are still the same ever. But rather than specific size men are attracted by a smaller waist- bigger ornamentation ratio.             As a side note, they also found that when it comes to male erotica searches on Internet, for every “skinny girl” search, there are almost three “fat girl” searches. In very plain terms it means that Titanic’s star Kate Winslet would be more popular in the eyes of men than, let’s say, Sex and the City’s Sarah Jessica Parker.  It would also mean that plump version of Jennifer Hudson might get the same appeal as skinny Jennifer Hudson, since what matter is keeping the curves, not the size of the curves.

It is important to keep in mind that the industries that work with body image, namely Fashion, Advertisement and Film (Hollywood), chose their models. In the case of fashion is clear that they can select the models according to the age and body type that fits their interests. If you don’t have that body type or if you are not 14 to 25 like most models, well it’s going to be hard to live by those standards. But the good news is that you don’t have to. There’s also no law that obliges you to look like assembled human being ‘Kim Kardasian’ to be attractive.

Another thing that is crucial is to consider that professional models, well they are professionals. They work hard to meet the standards of the industry and to make the most of what nature gave them.  Next time you see and ad with a super fit model, instead of asking yourself: ‘why can’t I be more like that?’, ask yourself if she could be as good as you at your job without intensive training and effort.

When talking about this topic I felt that it was important to say that the problem of body image is not specific to women, but it also touches men directly and indirectly. Directly by often setting unrealistic expectations towards body images.  Even though is not new (Michelangelo’s David is inspired by many men), but crucial to have in mind. More than ever teenagers are beginning to suffer from eating disorders and struggle with their image. Men are also affected indirectly by the negative effect this phenomenon has on the confidence of the women in our lives. Don’t underestimate the importance that the happiness of partners, mothers, sisters, friends, have for men.

So what are the things to keep in mind:

1.- Working on your self confidence is as important as working out.

2.- Don’t aim to have an ideal body that doesn’t fit your body type. Instead figure out how to make the most of you body type to feel good with yourself.

3.- Self esteem starts at home, be sure to tell your daughters and sons they are beautiful as they are. To have they’re own beauty standards, not a ‘foreign’ industry or even your own.

4.- You can weigh-in on what media (fashion, advertisement) portrays by making your opinion be heard. Write to your favorite magazines if you think they’re being unfair; buy products and clothes that are conscientious about body types and age (you should feel represented). When it comes to market tendencies the public is the ultimate boss.

5.- And lastly and most important: Healthy is the ultimate sexy!