Anyone who says body image is portrayed accurately in the media is delusional. The first thing I thought of when reading today's question was of a billboard I saw in Paris when I went with a group during high school. It was a woman, completely nude and skinny as all heck. You couldn't see any of her parts really, but the ad was for jeans. How does a naked woman sell jeans that she's not even wearing? No one really paid attention to the ad that was about 3 stories high and in the middle of a busy train station... Maybe things are a little more liberal in France? But the group of us as students gawked at it!
The pictures and images we see are not the only thing contributing and promoting this warped sense of perfection. Many stores have changed the sizing of their clothing through out the years and they aren't even all standard. Ever notice that? When you go into one store and fit into a size 8 but can't squeeze your butt into a 12 at another. If we really believed every size was beautiful, there would be guidelines to show us what these sizes should look like and would be standard across the board because it wouldn't matter what number we fit in. And just to revisit that ad for a second... What if that ad were for breastfeeding advocacy? Would more people have been gawking at this ad? Maybe. Or maybe it would inspire more women and men to be more accepting of this perfectly natural part of raising a child.
I think the way we portray beauty in the media is skewed greatly and I'm not sure there's anything we can do about it at this point besides teaching our children that we are all unique and different and still just as beautiful. There is no one perfect body type or size or weight. If you're happy with yourself, that's all that should matter.
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