BODY IMAGE AND SELF-ESTEEM

 There is an obsession to have a certain body type or have a particular look has been deemed to be attractive. Here is the thing, though a majority of us do not fall into the set beauty standards and that DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE NOT BEAUTIFUL. You are absolutely GORGEOUS regardless of what society says.

So what is body image and self-esteem?

Body image is both the mental picture you have of your own body and how you see yourself when you look in a mirror.

Self-esteem is how you value and respect yourself as a person. Self-esteem affects how you take care of yourself, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

These concepts are important because the way we see ourselves influences every aspect of our lives. When you have healthy body image you feel comfortable about your body and you know how to take care of it.

In the world today with all that has been going on, social media and modernization body image is one of the major issues affecting people and as underrated as it seems to be people actually go through a lot due to different body image issues. The main reason for this research is to speak to every person out there whether young or old that has experienced a mental breakdown because of body image issues whether it was body shaming, lack of confidence, low self-esteem, has at some point became suicidal and many others.

We often here statements like "I don't think I'm good enough" "I wished I looked like so and so" "I can't do this because I look like this" we often ignore or assume that these are normal statements but the truth is that they dig deeper than the skin, they are what the person perceives themselves to be and these eventually becomes their state of mind hence falling into a mental breakdown like eating disorders, depression, suicide and others.

In light of the campaign I conducted a research among people age group 18-27 people that most of them I interacted with on day to day basis and I asked them if they had ever gone through any experience whether good or bad because of how they looked like, I got a lot of feedback, among 50 people who actively interacted in the session 20 people had different experiences that cost them a lot some had already fallen into mental breakdowns and some were heading there and some were fighting not to, I'll only focus on 4 experiences on this paper though I had already posted all the responses on a social platform where people were able to share and encourage each other and also educate each other on the same.

PEOPLE SPEAK

"Yes I have gone through so many issues with how I look in my day to day life. First you fear setting standards because it's obvious you don't look so nice to set such standards, like you don't love a certain type of men so when they approach you and you say no you are told that the way you look if you refuse them who will be interested in you, so this statement demeans me to an extent I fear saying no to some things. Second the body I have has made lose friends like I don't fit walking with them because they think that I'm destroying their beauty and it has also made me lose potential boyfriends. Someone love my character but the character is not on the body type he admires. Finally, I even have esteem issues. When I do put on something I'm always like the belly fat has popped and people will say that I have worn clothes that are not of my body type. All these puts me down and makes me distance myself from people a lot. Were it not for this body type I should say I could have done a lot for myself" Girl, 20 Years old

"So I was not proud of my body nor my face because I started having pimples on my face way before others in primary school this gave me a lot of esteem issues because some of my friends would make fun of me and what would hurt more was adults also talking negatively about my face, they'd say I looked older and it hurt my feelings it got to a point where I would look myself in the mirror and cry feeling so bad at how ugly I looked because of all of these I ended up looking for skincare solutions which some ended up destroying my face with some deep pores which have died down but they were terrible." Boy,21 Years old

"Being "1 gb" is stressful you have self-esteem issues and every time you are in a group of friends and all my friends are figured then there's me. There's a time we attended an event and there is this boy who had been interested in me but I wasn't so we met again in the event and the guy just came to where I was sitting, stood me up and told me that my butt was not fit for the sit so I should leave the seat for the girl he had come to the event with because the girl had big butts so because I didn't want to create attention I just left the seat and from that day I no longer even go for hangouts maybe if I add weight I will "Girl, 21 Years Old

"I have, I can't talk to some women because I'm not tall others talk to me because of a beard I'm not an object of attraction as I am taken to be" Boy 24 Years old.

CONCLUSION

From the experiences above we can clearly see that these body image issues have taken hostage of our being of our livelihood like the girl who can no longer wear certain clothes because of people or the one who can no longer go for events because of the embarrassment she went through or the boy who almost ripped his face off because of the pain he went through. The society, the social media has created a hostile environment for all of us, the stereotype that you should have a certain skin tone or a certain body shape has ruined everybody's mind and we are destroying each other. The other day I asked guys what they look for in a girl and this one guy blankly told me that "We want good looking women, numbers don't lie, so she should be shaped like an 8, why would we bother with fat or skinny girls at our prime and in any case I think it's best for anyone to stay in shape, it's the first sign of self-discipline and freedom." and I was devastated. The other day I was seeing one of the most famous Kenyan Blogger's story, Edgar Obare and apparently there are things like 'light skin' and 'ass' privileges and the society might not get better but you personally can and you can begin as simple as stopping to body shame people, encouraging others and if you are the victim the following are some of the tips that can help you avoid falling into a mental breakdown:

• Treat your body with respect
• Dress in a way that makes you feel good about yourself
• Find short messages that helps you feel good about yourself and write them to replace the negative thoughts with positive ones
• Surround yourself with positive friends and family who recognize your uniqueness.