I've been struggling with this for years now and felt I should finally just write about it.
I struggle with body-image issues.
No matter how hard I work in the gym and know I'm making strides, I still can't seem to shake the image of the 13-year-old boy standing infront of a mirror grabbing his midsection wishing he looked different.
In fact, I still to this day get moments where I wish I would wake up looking like someone else.
Growing up, I was never a "skinny" kid.
In fact, I bought clothes in the "husky" section which essentially is where boys with larger bodies go to buy clothes because regular clothes were just a bit too snug. I wasn't obese...just a little bigger and therefore needed to shop in an entirely different section for my body type.
I never thought much of it until middle school when other boys started to grow out of their chubby phase but I still held on to baby fat.
Even when my body began changing, I remained a little doughy and other kids made sure I knew about it.
I was teased for being chubby and I guess because I've always been a softee, it affected me more than it should have.
Yes, my diet was somewhat to blame, like most parents out there, my mom and dad thought, "well he plays outside every day, he plays soccer, and is active quite often, so naturally he should be okay." Plus my doctors would say I was perfectly healthy.
But genetics wouldn't let me detach from that baby weight.
Eventually, it went away but still to this day, all I picture when I stand in the mirror is that 13-year-old boy wishing he looked like someone else.
So why do I still struggle with my body image to this day if I've grown since then and I obviously look different at 29 than I did at 13?
I'm by no means obese and when I mention my desire to lose weight or that I'm unhappy with something on my body, people tell me that I'm crazy and that they see nothing to change.
Maybe they're being sincere, or maybe they're just being nice.
Maybe it's that society's standard is still skinny and trim for women and well-built chiseled physique for men, no matter how much we tell ourselves that people of all shapes and sizes are beautiful.
Let's be real... would Marvel movies be that enjoyable if Captain America was overweight? We say it wouldn't matter but would you really care about it that much if Chris Evans wasn't in the gym 5 hours a day for months on end before filming?
Not likely.
While I do love the strides we're trying to make with women's body image issues and seeing more women of all sizes celebrate their bodies, I still can't help but notice society expects men to look a certain way. (Again, cue Marvel movies.)
While I'm not asking for people to be politically correct and expect men to just let ourselves go... I'm merely stating that maybe we should put emphasis on body image issues for males at the same time we preach about how much we admire Lizzo or Ashley Graham for their body positive attitudes.
