Body Image

“Body Image: Third Wave Feminism Issue?” written by Amelia Richards makes the argument that body image is something that all feminists and non-feminist women can relate to. She states that the first and second wave of feminism had clearly defined goals and purposes, and this is not the case with the third wave of feminism. Feminism today is all over the board; in fact, what one group of feminists are fighting for may contradict what another group of feminists wants. Richards believes that the issue of body image is something that all feminists can unite on. I completely agree. Almost every woman I know today has body image issues of their own, and all share the complaint that there is no way to ever measure up to the images of women we see in the media. Richard states that “Body image is significant as a rallying focus because it speaks not only to the converted but also to the ‘I’m not a feminist, but . . . I’m tired of measuring myself against an impossible-to-achieve beauty standard’ contingent.” Are we not all tired of trying to measure up to that? In almost every popular magazine there are countless advertisements picturing tall, slender, and usually tan women who we are being told is how we are supposed to look. Very rarely do we see advertisements featuring any average sized women, and almost never do we see plus size women. When we turn on the television we see the same types of women. We see these beautiful women, with no unsightly bulges, and flawless skin. We see women with newborn babies who already have their flat stomachs back. This is not reality. These women in the advertisements and the women on popular television are not what the majority of women in America look like. A very small percentage of women are actually biologically able to be tall and thin. The majority of women in America are not stick thin and tall. Whoever those women are supposed to be representing, it certainly is not us normal women of America. What do these everyday women who are not on television or in magazines feel like? Well, I hate the way I feel sometimes while looking through pictures of what I could never hope to look like, feeling I have failed somehow because I do not fit that depiction of attractiveness. Richard discusses feelings of being in a double standard. She talks about writing responses for her advice column to young women who suffer from eating disorders and poor body images, giving them advice that they should learn to love their bodies and telling them they need not try to live up to the images of women they see all over. At the same time she knows that attractive and slim women statistically fare better in life and in careers than women who are less attractive by cultural “norms” and who are maybe normal weight or overweight. I think that a lot of women, including myself, talk about how we do not have to look like these women on television or in magazines, we talk about how we need to love our own bodies; all the while we are still feeling bad, maybe just a little, about our own bodies not measuring up to these women we see all the time. How does one get other young women to love their bodies, when perhaps she has body issues of her own? Richards suggests that we “create a dialog,” and also states that we must “point out that this problem affects men, too.” She believes we must unify for this cause, have better sex education and keep the conversation open. She says we need to carry the “dialog” out into our normal lives so that we can start to feel better about ourselves. I believe that she is right. This is one cause that I’m sure most could agree on. According to Richards “It’s up to the third wave of feminism to make sure this conversation continues and that a support network exists.”


Richards, Amy. "Body Image: A Third Wave Issue?." Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings,. McGraw, 2004. 220-21.