Seems like the pursue of happiness by trying to influence our body image increased rapidly during the 00's. I mean look at Hollywood movies and TV shows - the perfect faces and bodies you see are not natural. It was traditionally common for women to be more self-conscious about their appearance, but nowadays that is not the case. Men are more and more being bombarded with those media stereotypes about how the buff looking guy with the cute face takes the girl. If you look at some TV shows from the 70's men faces vary more than nowadays. Nowadays we have too much beauty/handsomeness stereotypes. Hell, I didn't know that Tom Cruise had a nose job until recently! And I didn't know that Paris Hilton's eyes are actually brown. I mean she looks fake but I thought they were naturally blue. Society wants us to be either thin (for women) or hunky looking and muscular (for us, men). It seems that average is ugly nowadays. Then again, it depends in the area - there's more pressure in urban areas. We should not be all fake, but pop culture makes the Barbie/Adonis look the norm.

However, the opposite extreme also sucks, and it sucks even more, since if you are too heavy it may be a lot dangerous for your health.

I don't think that the pursue of better appearance is entirely wrong because it's always good to be in shape, eat healthy food, etc. However, if you are doing this for the others, I don't think that's good, If someone decides to change his/her way of life, they should do it for personal reasons, they should do it for themselves. Also, if you feel bad about your body and/or face you'll probably become too self-conscious and you may ruin your social life. In such a case you've got to change your way of life in order to start feeling better in your skin.

What's wrong with the current society is that there is too much pressure from the media. You have to always be able to do exercises, jog etc. Too many exercises, too little time. But what happened to me is on the other extreme - I didn't care about my health. Now I'm 21, but my teeth are in a bad condition and I have a belly. I am really thin, but I've got this annoying belly, can you imagine? My arms are thin and my tummy is like that because I am too lazy to exercise. I think that is the reason all those Barbie/Ken-like people are so highly regarded in our society - they really deserve it, as they had the guts to overcome their laziness and to work hard on their body.

Now I've decided to try a lot harder then before in getting back in shape... for the first time since I was like 15-16. lol

Well somebody who works out and takes care of themselves and gets a fantastic bod has got it goin' on, I agree.

But once they cross the line to fake boobs, butt implants, and the like, they lose me there.

IMO, nobody should compare themselves to anyone else, including celebrities.  True, that someone like Johnny Depp, who is probably around 45 or so, is in better shape than 90 percent of the 20-something male population, but the man is loaded with cash, so he can invest looking as good as he wants to.  Does this mean he is living a happy life?  Well no one knows, so I don't think it is fair to look down on yourself because so-and-so is better looking.

And that is the thing with Hollywood though.  People invest money to not see the real world, but a world that is more fun.  You don't see many Megan Fox's in the real world.

I think that Phil Collins covered the issue of the perfect body and perfect face in his song "I Can't Dance".

;D

I don't mind the idea of cosmetic surgery, as long as it doesn't get out of hand. (please, no MJ jokes, it's too soon!) I have never had cosmetic surgery, but if I did get it, I wouldn't do anything to my face. I would just work on my body.  :)

.

Hi cowboy,

I am all for natural self-improvement. I had an operation on my eyes to correct a squint and, despite them looking a touch bloodshot these days, my eyes are at least in synch with each other now. I have also lost 2.5 stone in weight in a year and am confident, now I have improved my fitness further, I can lose more in a faster time period (my ideal weight is to get to 12.5/13 stone).

All these things relate to self-esteem and how you see yourself in at least two ways; you look better and you feel like you have accomplished something special.

Cosmetic surgery, in the long run, doesn't make anyone feel better because they are rarely satisfied with just the one operation. It becomes an addiction and, overtime, regular appointments become the norm just to keep everything in place. I am not particularly for things like liposuction/fat removing surgery either (unless the person is that chronically obese that is the only solution) because it doesn't encourage keeping fit. Our bodies are, for want of a better word, machines and we only get out of them what effort we put into them.

Cowboy, I used to think there is never any time to do excercise but I had to understand that if I was to get serious about losing weight I had to make lifestyle routine changes.There is never too little time to do exercise (it can be just something simple to start with like walking upstairs instead of taking the lift, walking somewhere instead of driving/catching the bus...). I do an 8 hour job 5 days a week and usually find time to walk to the gym for 40 mins, do at least an hour at the gym and walk home for another 40 mins on average 4 days a week. Today, I burned over 1,700 calories on the treadmill/cross-trainer but that takes time to achieve and I never thought I was capable of it. You, like me, are.

I think that Phil Collins covered the issue of the perfect body and perfect face in his song "I Can't Dance".

;D


That wasn't his song though