From a very young age, women are raised to live up to unrealistic beauty standards put upon them by society. They are expected to be hairless all over their body, have to be slim with no tummy but big butt, smell like daisies and roses all the time, not have regular bodily fluids and gases, and be an all-around perfect Barbie. It is hard to live up to something so unobtainable especially starting at an age as low as three. Having a normalized yet extraordinary societal implication drilled into you as soon as you are out of the womb is and can be mentally and physically draining.

Social media, magazines, newspapers, and even televisions tend to push high and barely achievable standards. You must look a certain way for society to at least acknowledge your “beauty” even when you have tried to mold yourself to please them. Even then there is always criticism behind it all. Women have to be slim but not too slim, thick but not too thick to where you have a tummy. Women can wear makeup but not too much because it would look like we are trying too hard. We can show skin but not too much because we would get shamed. It is considered weird or impolite for a woman to even have bodily gases. What can we do but try to love ourselves as is? We can not please everyone. It is even harder to try to love who we are especially when getting judged left and right. Almost anything a woman does, she gets criticized for and negative effects build up rapidly.

Imagine being taught from a young age you need to change as soon as you pop out to fit what other images of you are. That could easily make your self-esteem plummet exponentially. It teaches you to hate normal things on your body like hair, stretch marks, acne, discoloration, and other natural things everyone has. These insane depictions of how you should look could easily cause body dysmorphia and low confidence especially for someone that is never taught to love who they are from the beginning. Why are there images forced onto women? We should love ourselves as we are imperfections in all. Even in today’s world, we are slightly getting better at opening our eyes up to what’s beautiful but there’s still much work to do.

Societal expectations from women are exceedingly high and need to stop being forced upon us. It causes self-hate and confidence problems from a young age. It is mentally and physically draining because we try so hard to find the status quo when the status quo should be made to fit all realistically.