My Modest Proposal for Eliminating Body Image Issues and Reducing Judgements in Order to Create a Healthier more Loving Society that is Accepting of Everyone | Teen Ink

My Modest Proposal for Eliminating Body Image Issues and Reducing Judgements in Order to Create a Healthier more Loving Society that is Accepting of Everyone

January 31, 2019
By katstaebel BRONZE, Spring, Texas
katstaebel BRONZE, Spring, Texas
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

In today’s world, with social media like Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat, many people struggle with appearance. Society is very judgmental. All people are expected to live their perfect lives and look perfect. But as Hannah Montana stated, “Nobody is Perfect.” Body image is a major problem that needs our attention. It affects the overall mindset of so many people. According to DoSomething, 91% of women are unhappy in their bodies and only 5% of women naturally have the body type portrayed in American social media. And this doesn’t just apply to women, men can also have body image issues. 20% of men agreed that they would consider cosmetic surgery in the future. This issue can have multiple ripple effects. For example, many people struggling with body image issues will resort to an eating disorder. Or develop low self-esteem and become depressed or lead to stress disorders (they haven’t been taught mindfulness like we have been so fortunate to learn about). I bet most people have experienced some form of judgement based solely on the way you look. We’ve all been taught from a very young age that our impressions matter. Why should they? Why should we impress people with our appearance?

I believe if people could see us for who we are and not what we look like the world would be a happier place and society would accept all. My solution is to blind everyone on the Earth, that way no one can ever look at each other again and compare ourselves. There are many ways to go about this. Solution one includes stabbing your eyes out with a fork. This will create a bit of a bloody mess, but you will be blind, and no one will notice it, so you don’t have to clean it up. Solution two, is to scope out your eyes with a spoon like you're making an ice cream sundae. This is a cleaner solution and the thought of ice cream will make the pain more bearable, but you should probably throw away the spoon (if you can find the trash can). Solution three is the least painful of all. For any crafty people or diy queens out there, this option is for you. You are going to take your hot glue gun and apply hot glue to upper and lower eye line and proceed to close your eyes forever. This gives people the opportunity to see people based on their character rather than physical appearance.

As you already know the upsides are endless. Firstly, no one can judge you based on your appearance. Everyone will treat each other equally because no prejudice will be present if you can’t tell who you’re talking to. Society will be more accepting and will depend on each other more because you need a strong, cohesive community to support all the people, who are visionally impaired. Secondly, body image issues will be eliminated. Nobody would look on social media and compare themselves to others because no one can see each other. Every man and woman would feel beautiful and would be comfortable in their skin because they know no one can see what they truly look at. Everybody’s self-esteem and confidence would improve. Thirdly, people’s values would be less vain. People would be less obsessed with their looks, or their Instagrams, and spend more time working, educating themselves, socializing with different people (in person). Fourthly, you would no longer see the pain in the world. War, death, and destruction would be ignored and possibly avoided because nobody would have to see others suffer.  Fifthly, eyecare is no longer necessary. No more paying for contacts and glasses which would save at least 61% of the population’s money. Finally, everyone will be forced to be happy. Sadness is an emotion expressed through tears and when your eyes are gone, you can no longer cry. Say goodbye to dark, depressing feelings. When you can’t express these dark personal thoughts, you can just ignore them.

Now I guess you could say that traveling is out of the picture. No more driving, flying, or sailing. I guess you could say this is a down side, but why travel when you can’t even see where you are going, no one wants to go to Paris if you can’t see the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre. Everyone is forced to stay in their own town, and everyone would walk everywhere. Being forced to walk everywhere would better people’s health, as they would be forced to be more fit. Honestly, there is no down side to this solution and there are only positives to this answer.

All in all, people get judges far too much based on what they look like. We can end this if we come together and resolve this like civil, smart human beings. By blinding ourselves we can truly be happy and confident in our self-worth. Everybody will accept each other and love people for who they are not their appearance. Society and this world will be a much greater place, if we have the vision for this solution, we can achieve it.


The author's comments:

I am a sophmore in high school. I wrote this satirical piece for homework one night.  It was modeled after Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal", and my paper focuses on the issue of body image. 


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