avatarS M Mamunur Rahman

Summary

The article criticizes the societal pressure to conform to unrealistic body standards perpetuated by social media, emphasizing the importance of a healthy body over a hyper-sexualized "Instagram-worthy" physique.

Abstract

The author argues that the obsession with achieving a "hot and sexy body" is a damaging trend fueled by social media platforms like Instagram, which promotes a culture of comparison and the pursuit of external validation. This fixation leads individuals to extreme diets, excessive exercise, and an unhealthy preoccupation with physical appearance, often at the expense of personal well-being and enjoyment of life. The piece suggests that the true essence of a healthy body is functionality and freedom from disease, not the attainment of societal beauty ideals. It also points out that the constant quest for social media validation can result in negative behaviors, such as obsessive calorie counting, body shaming, and the erosion of healthy habits like reading. The author encourages readers to reject the pressure to display their bodies online for likes and comments and instead focus on internal happiness and health without seeking public approval.

Opinions

  • The fitness culture has been distorted by social media, pushing an agenda of physical perfection that is both unrealistic and unhealthy.
  • The desire for social media validation can

Fu*k Instagram! — You Don’t Need a Hot & Sexy Body

What everybody is telling you about the perfect body is a fat big lie.

Image created by the author using Canva

Standing in front of a mirror, you think that you are an ugly piece of shit when everybody else is just hot and sexy.

If you are a man, you lack your abs, six-pack, or perfectly crafted muscles that are constantly trying to come out of your T-shirt. And if you are a woman, you curse god for doing injustice to you. All the other girls look hot in a bikini, but all you’ve got is some ugly fat. So, you die inside while exposing your body. Shame! Shame! Shame! Why me!!!???, you said to yourself.

You deserve better, right? You deserve the most beautiful body, hot, enticing, and perfect for Instagram, don’t you? You deserve all the likes, loves, comments, and attention, right?

The fitness culture — as we know it now — is a comparatively recent phenomenon. And it got fueled by the invasion of social media just a few years ago. I mean, seriously, this got intense when apps like Facebook and Instagram took over our minds. Yes, of course, the film industry has a fair share as well.

If you go back to only fifty years, you will find no man or woman willingly exposing their bodies to the public (unless they are models or something). But now, everybody is ready to take off their clothes. Why? Because they want to exhibit what they got under their attire and take pride in that.

Thanks to the editing facilities, the young generation has already gone mad. Now, everybody has joined the parade to show their bare bodies only to prove that they are something, I mean, beautiful, powerful, hot, sexy, and they matter.

They crave social validation or the dopamine hit or whatever the fu*k you say for their existence.

Don’t get me wrong! I am not against having a healthy body. A body that is free from diseases and functions well. But a healthy body has very little to do with a sexy, hot, dashing, zero-figure, or six-pack body.

However, just doing things for the sake of getting tons of likes or loves turns you into an attention-seeking zombie (not an actual healthy human being).

I had a colleague exactly like that. She was extremely worried about her looks. And to lose weight and get the perfect body shape, she did follow a strict diet. That’s not the problem. The problem was — her mind was so occupied with this fitness bullshit that she never enjoyed any meal as she always counted and worried about the calories she took. She used to take photos and post on Instagram and then started comparing with others.

Another friend of mine was extremely unhappy with her chin. Due to some fat under her chin, sometimes it looked like a double chin. And all she wished for her chin-fat to disappear. She used to zoom in on all her photos to see whether her diet plan was doing any help.

One of my blogger-friends has already destroyed his reading habit. Now after getting home from the office, all he does is scroll down and watch either Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube shorts. He told me that he does this for entertainment and reading seems too hard for mind after a tiresome work-day.

Do you think any of those is a healthy practice to continue?

You may think that I am just picking one or two examples and coming to a conclusion. Well, it’s not.

An article on The Guardian says that according to a poll, one in three girls says that they are living a life under the constant pressure to project a ‘perfect’ life online which is affecting their wellbeing.

This is exactly the case for you. You want to show that you are ‘perfect’. That’s why when your photo doesn’t get the desired likes, loves, or comments, you just delete it thinking that this one is not good enough. I mean, you give power to some unknown people on Facebook or Instagram to judge whether you are beautiful or not. Isn’t that silly?

Well, I understand. When you are constantly being bombarded with so many great-looking boys and girls, men and women on different social media platforms, your mind automatically starts to compare as human brains are wired that way. But don’t you have a conscience?

Don’t you know that some big corporations want to suck all of your attention and shape your body and behavior to maximize their business? I wonder why don’t you use your brain and take control of your body and mind in your own hands?

The problem with this generation is they do what most people do or like. It doesn’t matter whether it’s right or wrong, good or bad. If a million people eat shit, they will eat that too. Don’t you believe me? Just look at the YouTube shorts and TikTok. You’ll understand what I am talking about.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is — you don’t have to work out every single day or go on a diet only to send some cool & sexy photos on Instagram and get love-react from a bunch of attention-seeking morons just like you.

If you truly want to live a happy life, eat healthily, do exercise — but for god’s sake, don’t publicize what’s under your shirts or pants.

Have some commonsense, please!

Thank you for reading!

This article is part of my 90-day writing challenge.

If you want to read more of my articles, do check the following ones.

  1. Do Frogs Cross the Roads for Sex?
  2. Identify Your Fake Readers on Medium
  3. What 99% of Writers Are Doing Wrong With Their Images

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Social Media
Body Positivity
Self-awareness
Mindset
Thinking
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