Life in Plastic (It’s Fantastic)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKz1WgyFAcw

Jesse Rosten’s satirical commercial portrays Fotoshop as a new beauty product highlighting how our body image has been massively distorted by magazines, TV adverts, makeup, toys such as Barbie dolls, and even Facebook.

The Unachievable Ideal:

Barbie’s Vital Statistics: 5”9, bust 39 inches, waist 18 inches, hips 33 inches, size 3 feet, BMI 16.24

Yes she’s beautiful, but in real life Barbie is so disproportionate that she would topple over – a great excuse for missing lectures, but in reality a massive pain. Similarly, to find our perfect Ken, he would have to be 20 inches taller and 11 inches wider around his chest than the average man to fit the bill.

The Perfect Man: over 6”5, strict weights routine at the gym, 4-5 protein shakes a day, 13.5 inch penis, no carbs or equally obsessive over carbs (Hugh Ripley) and maybe even spray tanned to emphasize that fine physique?!

Here, I would like to point out that if I ever came across this man (dressed or not) I would be pretty intimidated. So what’s the reality?

The Exeter Reality:

As students, sometimes we are too hung-over to get out of bed to go to the gym. Other days we need that 500g bar of chocolate and excessive amount of wine gums to get us through an essay.

For those of you who fend for yourselves, cooking can be a nightmare. I personally live off a varied diet of spaghetti bolognese, chicken breasts, cereal and poached eggs and have a housemate who never eats vegetables but is somehow teeny tiny. I had never heard of acai berries until recently, will never enjoy green tea and it is unlikely that I will ever be able to afford plastic surgery. But this is the norm (well, at least I hope so).

While celebrities look good in magazines and on television, stripped back from their expensive lifestyle, makeup and Photoshopped images – they are just regular people. While that girl in Timepiece last week may have had the most amazing legs, she probably has fat days too and very possibly has no boobs.

Ultimately, therefore, why bother? Without advocating constant bingeing and becoming permanently sedentary we should accept ourselves as we are. As Rosten highlights, nobody is perfect, and our societal body ideals are only what we make them.