Unrealistic Expectations

Our society has a pretty messed up idea of the ‘perfect’ body.  Seriously.

There is a lot of pressure on women to have the ‘Barbie-body’ when realistically, it’s totally out of proportion and frankly, not attainable.

Plenty of studies have been done to show just how unrealistic her body type would be if she were actually human.  Suffice to say, she would be very tall, very skinny and anorexic.  Her neck would be too long to hold up her head and her feet too tiny.

Note the image on the left.  This is Barbie.  Long neck, long legs and NO muscle.  You can be a thin person with a high body fat percentage, but that’s a topic for another day.

The image on the right is the Barbie doll compared to the body shape of a real person.  The doll on the right in the image on the right has the average proportions of what a typical 19 year old woman has.

Simply put, the standard Barbie shape is not possible.  It sets society up for false expectations of what a woman’s shape really is and should be.  And it’s not just Barbie and other dolls. Media portrays false expectations, too.  Thanks to photo editing made easy, body shapes are being changed all the time to achieve the ‘perfect look.’  If there is indeed such a thing.

Oh, and let’s not forget this isn’t only for the female portion of society.  The male side has some unrealistic expectations thrown in front of them, too.

I give you He-Man.

Poking around this morning looking to see what this dude would be in real life, if he were 6′ to 6’4″ he’d be around seven hundred pounds (at least based on what I could find on the web – and everything on the internet is true).  Slightly unrealistic.

So, try not to follow a fictitious image of what the human body should look like.  Am I ever gonna look like Brad Pitt in “The Fight Club?”  Probably not.  I’m gonna look like me.  Form follows function and whatever form you wind up with is based on your function.

Move, eat well and live healthy.  You may not wind up looking like Barbie or He-Man, but at least you’ll be able to hold your head up.

March 3, 2014 | Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Barbie, expectations, he-man, kettlebells, society, unrealistic | Leave a comment