To understand what society thinks of the body image, i went to the source. I sent out a Google Forms Survey to the MYP* AND DP* students of my school, Mercedes Benz International School.

 

The average answers were that the Ideal Body for women should be slim, lean and tall. And for the men, the Ideal Body should be tall, more on the muscular side, but still lean, and have sharp facial features

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These body images matches well with the typical mannequins body sizes that we see in our malls, as clear from the adjoining image. 

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They also said that they did not like at least one part of their body, which means that if given the chance and having enough money, they would probably undergo surgery is it was a part of their body tha was changeable.

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An obvious question in the survey was whether they had an idea as to who or what was the cause of increasing and promoting Body Image, It was easily understandable that everyone had the similar ideas, which is the  social media, celebrities, and the internet in general. 

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Everybody felt that advertising is now telling us that we do not look correct, in order to make us want to change ourselves, and use their "correction" products in order to do it. 

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Though all of them had the same correct answers, not a single answer said the exact, main reason behind promoting the Ideal Body - advertisement.  Advertisement is what makes the people and social media spread information about the Ideal Body, to tell people that they are "not correct", or that they should look a certain way in order to sell their products which could help the people "correct themselves". Obviously, people who think that these commercials are correct, buy their product, thus earning the the seller money. 

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At present, the bigger conversation in different medias is about natural body type of an individual.  It is about how to nurture your body through the healthy habits of eating right, exercising and sleeping well and avoid excess of any kind.   

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What is very encouraging is that the despite the bombardments of messages, the current body image is about celebrating the natural body type through a healthy life-style.  And this is a theme that came out of the replies to my survey!

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