Many men often have the question "why are women so self conscious about their bodies?". I see it often asked and I feel that here's a time to make a solid explanation as to why that is.
1) The obvious media
Everyone knows about the media being to blame for many of the self image problems made by the media towards the two genders. But yet many guys think but we have the media too but we're not nearly as self conscious. And that's true but the way the media portrays our body's is much different. Often times when make celebs get photoshopped on pictures it's just picture airbrushing or adding high/low lights in specific areas.
However for women it often involves the cutting out off whole body parts. I'm not saying this doesn't happen to men (because it does), but as we can see in this botched target job they just decided I slice a huge portion of the girls body out
Causing us to assume that most women are that small when in reality even models aren't that tiny.
3) The media again
Growing up I was a huge fan of magazines growing up. But on the cover of almost every magazine was "lose 15lbs" or "get that summer body". And seeing it all the time probably made me question whether I maybe needed to lose 10lbs especially because they had these thin supermodels that I looked nothing like.
4) What our moms say about themselves
I don't know about boys by I don't think they often hear the after effects of how their moms bodily comments effect them. I often hear my mom say things like "I just need to lose 10lbs" and "I'm not skinny enough for that". Now as I grow up I make critics about the parts my mom made comments about. (Obviously) I have similar features so what she hated and commented on she taught me I should hate too. Guys may hear their dads make similar comments about their bodies but I just never really heard my dad making too many comments about his body.
5) What our moms said to us
Once again I'm not sure if this happens to guys frequently, but I remember being in the dressing room with my mom and her saying "are you sure that shirt isn't too right, I mean your stomach is kind of big". And this wasn't said to me at 16 this was said at about 10. If even my mom the one person whose supposed to accept me no matter what didn't think my boy was beautiful, why would I think I was .
4) Comments guys said to us
Many guys go "but what guys don't really care that much". But they do or at least did. Often times before boys got mature (let's say 5th or 6th grade) they believes that what they saw on movie stars and in porn was accurate. I remember guys calling girls fat or saying a girls boobs weren't big enough. Many of these comments still designate within me and we're the start of my constant self consciousness because I wanted boys to like me.
5) Our great memories
We all know of the stereotype that women tend to remember things and bring them up later. And I think that great memory rumor is true. All these things are small instances women have had sprinkled throughout their lives but our memories are what make us remember all these things when taking off our shirt in front of our boyfriend, when shopping for a bikini, etc. the fact that we don't just forget is probably what hurts us the most.
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