Photo by Marie C.
Recently while I was perusing my Tumblr I came across this post. At first I was just going to scroll past, but then I decided to actually stop and look at it.
This post consists of 8 of photos of young girls accompanied by their own words describing their relationship to their bodies. At the end of the post it states, “By 13 years-old 53% of girls say they are unhappy with their bodies. When were we happy? Marie C. photographed and interviewed 4-8 year old girls and asked them what they liked about their bodies to find out.” Essentially, these young girls will learn to be dissatisfied with their bodies in only 5 years. Our culture teaches women and girls to be forever unsatisfied with how they look, and the love and admiration they once had for their bodies will disappear.
My personal favorite quote from these little girls is “I like my body because its [sic] magic” and it breaks my heart to realize that someday she will no longer believe this about herself. This was particularly painful to read because it reminds me much of myself at her age. Although I used to believe that my body was capable of anything, and I marveled at everything it could do, I have learned to be dissatisfied with it and focus only on what it is not. My body has become a battleground of conflicting images of what society believes it should be and what it actually is, and I found this project to be especially poignant as it forced me to realize the ways in which my relationship with my body has changed as I consume ever more images of an impossible beauty ideal.
Unruly Bodies 
[ Smiles ] Yes, an amazing article.
Peers and the electronic media has a strong influence on their minds and they begin to look at their body in a different manner.
Awwww. =( Reading about this makes me sad because this is the bitter reality among the majority of young girls in the U.S., including myself. Growing up, I never was concerned with the shade of my skin, weight, facial features, etc. and now these concerns attack me daily starting in my pre-teen years. My only advice would be don’t give into what society or other negative factors say about yourself, because at the end of the day they don’t really dictate who you are as a person. Always make it a priority to create an embodiment of self worth through thinking about your talents, strengths, accomplishments, and other positive events or milestones in your life.
I’m curious as to whether or not you think we can learn something from such children–not in a, like, “ignorance is bliss” kind of way, but, by listening to them describe their bodies and what they like about them, do you think we can learn something really substantive from these tiny creatures?
I think we can, but I don’t know what it is exactly.
I often find children inspiring, and yet, they are often (it seems) most susceptible to internalizing information about body and beauty standards at face value.
I was babysitting for a five year old a while back, and she, to my sheer horror, managed to spew out in under a minute clearly taken-for-granted body ideals which ultimately communicated: if you’re fat, you’re a bad person, and if you’re a person or color–even though i’m not supposed to talk about it–you are of lesser value than white folks. Of course I–being the haphazard and naive lil’ baby I am–tried to talk to her about body image and racism (really effective way to not get re-hired as a babysitter, btw).
I don’t expect a five year old to think critically about race or beauty standards, but, why do you think we find this sort of stark other end of the spectrum? Do you think that, we (in the most general sense) can intervene in children’s lives in such a way as to stem this hateful and self-conscious tide? How so?
I’m not crying…you are! From time to time, I see old pictures of myself and think that little girl is so beautiful. Sometimes, it is not even a picture where I am looking into the camera and fully aware that photo is being taken. It’s the most candid ones when I think I look the most stunning. It is awfully painful that I do not feel this way now. If I am so proud of little me, does that mean she is proud of me? This aches my heart too much to even think about. I really do hope that she’s proud because I am trying my best. My body was not even something I was aware of then and wish there was a way to switch that filter on as an adult because truthfully, I need a break from perceiving my own body.
The last age I was happy with–or at least unaware of–my body was when I was 7. The following years, kids at my school started noticing things like belly fat and excess hair (probably when most of us started hitting puberty).
I have been trying to become more comfortable in my skin lately. I think body positivity campaigns and feminist spaces have helped me feel more comfortable in the fact that my body (and everyone’s body, really) is different from others. I don’t know how old the post you came across was, but I hope that movements like the body positivity campaigns are helping kids feel happier in their bodies for longer.