My question of the day is does size and shape matter to you? When it comes to my body, I am very much so concerned with shape and size. When I look at myself in certain swimsuits, I look super wide, but when I see myself next to other people that are bigger than me, I am able to see that perhaps I am not so wide after all, or perhaps the people standing next to me are just really big. Does that ever happen to you? Body image distortion and body image dissatisfaction are common, and this is actually something that neurologists have been studying for over a century.
But then I started thinking about the fact that image distortion isn’t limited to, or unique to how we see ourselves. I started thinking about the intentionality behind the bigger is better, superiority, and inferiority phenomena that we continue to carry with us today, from generation to generation.
We would never know that Africa is 14 times larger than Greenland looking at a typical map of the world. We would never know that Africa is actually larger than China, India, the contiguous U.S. and most of Europe—combined! We would not know this unless we are looking at an image that shows the proper proportions of Africa. Most maps that we see, like the popular Mercator Projection, distort the shapes of countries. The Peters Projection Map is the more accurate map that we should all invest in a copy of!
We live in a society that unconsciously equates size with importance and size with power. We live in a society that has a notorious track record for misrepresenting and devaluing third-world countries. We live in a society that has always pushed that the west is better than the rest.
My point is that body image distortion runs super deep in this world! There’s some super unconscious stuff happening to us and through us and we aren’t aware. The sad truth is that most will never care enough to course correct. It’s super easy to get trapped and lost in this world. It is super easy to get lost in what we look like in comparison to the man or woman next to us. But you must first understand what you are seeing, in order to properly navigate. There is always a back story, and we should all be interested.
I appreciate you and let’s talk soon!
P.S. One of the main reasons that I wrote my new book was to begin to casually address some of the hidden and unspoken truths that exist here in the United States that affect our communities, our economy, our mindsets, and more.
Wait, you don’t have the book yet? Well, it is available on Amazon (it’s trending in 7 categories in Urban Sociology and Political and Social Science)!
And if you’ve already bought the book for yourself, consider giving a copy to your sister, mother, cousin, brother, neighbor….anyone that could stand to use a bit more enlightenment on why things are the way that they are.