Body image is one’s individual thoughts on what they look like.  

Like Self Image, it’s influenced by many different things but our own perception is not always accurate to what other people think.  Sometimes, we think we’re too good and other times, we try too hard to meet an unachievable standard of comparison.  Sometimes we are just too hard on ourselves AND GET IN OUR OWN WAY of progress. 

You KNOW or at least learned before in places like Middle School Health, 9th/10th grade English, and all over social media, about body image in terms of body weight.  We know how the media and advertising companies often use unrealistic models and then people want to attain their image of “beauty”.   In fact, the commercial "success" in brainwashing the masses have created stereotype behaviors where Stereo-typically, young ladies  often  want to thin down while young men often want to bulk up.  This is OBVIOUSLY not the case all of the time which is why I said "stereo-typically".    In fact, the exact opposite of the stereotype is often a problem too where young woman WANT to get a little heavier and young men WANT to slim down.  

Although Body Image is physical in regards to what we see and most often associated with weight and body shape, I want to look at it from a different perspective and refrain from focusing just on weight.  OBVIOUSLY that’s a big part of it but people that are actually overweight or obese....they know it.  They don’t need to be reminded and there are obvious health concerns associated with this.  However for this class, I want to focus on the very real MENTAL & EMOTIONAL aspect  of Body Image.  Bottom Line:

we see something about ourselves and it (often) influences our sense of self inside.

Try to consider the very real mental and emotional aspects of it and how one's perception of their own body image can adversely or positively affect one's sense of self!   

QUESTIONS to consider:  

1) Can you have a healthy sense of self-image WITHOUT having a healthy body image.

2) Can you be happy with who you see if you are not happy with what you see?

3) Consider this from a different perspective?  What if the person is Transgender? What about when we add race into the equation?  What about when we add in Culture expectations?