In "Ways of Seeing," John Berger states, "You painted a naked woman because you enjoyed looking at her, put a mirror in her hand and you called the painting 'Vanity,' thus morally condemning the woman whose nakedness you had depicted for your own pleasure."
We live in a society where women are constantly defined by the male gaze.
So much so that a woman's perception of self creates a detachment between consciousness and body, the body as an object and the self as consciousness. This structure creates a scenario in which the woman sees the body as though it is a product and not herself. Its value becomes derived from looks dependent on the trends of the market's current infatuation of women's body parts: big lips, tiny waist, small thighs, big thighs, fit, lean, curvy.
Marketing, Instagram influencers, and consumerism have made your body a thing to be controlled by the market, not you.
However, your body is you, and if you want to love yourself it means accepting your whole self and realizing your shape and size are not things that should be fluctuating with current fashion and celebrity trends. Once you recognize your body is you, it becomes easier to perceptualize it inwardly. This means instead of constantly seeing your body from an outward perspective (in terms of fashion, industry, celebrity culture, etc.), you reconnect with it by focusing inwardly: defining yourself, reconnecting with your consciousness, and making goals that fulfill you emotionally (learning a language, reading a book a day, working out, learning to draw, getting a tattoo, traveling more, etc.).
Starting to love your body unconditionally takes a lot of time to yourself, and in no way is it emotionally simple.
You must learn what is important to you before anything else and then combat the energy of the outside world's consumerist view of you. Women are expected to fulfill so many roles to cater to male fantasy, not only in terms of body-image but as emotional beings.
Maybe this is the same reason so many women seek online personality quizzes to define their inner selves.
This is a wake-up call to start moving towards loving your body unconditionally. Reconnect with yourself by connecting body to mind again, instead of separating one as a commodity and the other as you.
