What “Body Image Activists” Are Actually Telling You: It Does Not Get Better

Illustration from the Los Angeles Times

The agenda promoted by chronic underachievers encouraging others — as a twisted way of justifying their own personal failures — to accept and embrace their weak, clumsy, sick, unfit, obese or skeletal body as it currently exists and what they themselves have created, voluntarily by intent or neglect, is as shameful as it is ludicrous.

Misery loves company.

"Accepting" your current body as-is, the way it functions and looks, with no thought or effort at improvement, as these as these so-called “Body Image Activist” losers demand, is as identical a concept as accepting any other troubling aspect of your overall present state. It's no different than accepting your crappy job, your insufficient income, your stalled career. It’s the exact same thing as accepting your dysfunctional marriage, the dangerous neighborhood you live in, your kids’ associating with unsavory friends. These "activists'" message is "don't let anyone pressure you into bettering yourself or your situation."

Our one and only body is the vehicle that transports us through life, the one and only life we will ever have. Sure, go ahead — run it into the ground! Stop caring for it. Stop caring about how it looks, how it functions, how it feels. Forget all about the future consequences of not caring for yourself — the disability, the pain, the lost opportunities. Be in denial about how you yourself judge others based on the outward expression of their self esteem and then hypocritically demand that others not judge you similarly.

People who claim they don’t have the time or inclination to exercise or eat in a healthy way do not get to complain about the consequences of their not exercising or eating in a healthy way, much less have the arrogance to demand that others step up to fix them, or pay for them to get fixed, or accommodate the deficits they have created willfully for themselves.

When it comes to our physical fitness or lack thereof, there’s no such thing as “I don’t know how this happened.”

What most people are okay with doing to their body they would never do to their car. Most people would be ashamed to be driving around in a wreck, with dents, scratches, patches, flat tires. Most do not ignore their car’s upkeep. They want it to look nice and avoid it breaking down in the middle of nowhere and leaving them stranded and afraid. They get the fluids changed, the tires rotated, the dents fixed. They get a tune up. Few just say “I’ll accept my car as it is. As it ages I will do nothing to keep it looking good and running well because I don’t care about what others think, nor do I really need a car all that much. And when it ultimately breaks down I’ll just demand that my friends and family rescue me, accommodate me, go out of their way to drive me places. Because it’s my right to let my car turn into a wreck — and when that happens it’s everyone else’s obligation to step up and help me regardless of what’s going on in their own lives because I’m so special and that’s what friends and family are there for anyway.”

Self identified “body image activists” aren’t fooling anybody. If they have half a brain in their addled heads they had damn well better be concerned about the way their body looks, feels and functions — and fast.

The way our bodies look is the manifestation of our overall health and fitness level. Pretending that the way our bodies look is something wholly separate, unrelated and apart from our self regard and self esteem is preposterous.

Fix yourself, people. Time’s running out.