How Our Biases Mess with Our Body Image (and What to Do About It)

Let’s get real for a second—your body image wasn’t just poof created out of nowhere. Nope. It was built over years, brick by brick, through offhand comments, magazine covers, movies, and even the way your mom looked at herself in the mirror. The way we see our own bodies? It’s soaked in biases that we never even signed up for—body image biases that make us question whether we’re “good enough” as we are. And that’s some serious BS.

The Sh*t We Learned Growing Up

Think back to childhood. Did your mom ever complain about her weight? Suck in her stomach before a photo? Call herself “bad” for eating dessert? Even if she never told you to worry about your body, she didn’t have to. You saw it. You felt it. And whether you realized it or not, you learned that a woman’s worth is tied to how small she can make herself. Generations of women have passed this down like a toxic heirloom, and it’s time to break the damn cycle of body image biases.

How Cartoons and Movies Screwed with Our Brains

Now let’s talk media. You ever notice how villains in cartoons are almost always fat? Think about it—Ursula, the Queen of Hearts, that chubby, bumbling sidekick who’s always the joke. The message was loud and clear: Thin is good. Fat is bad. Fat is funny. Fat is lazy. Fat is evil. And these weren’t just some harmless characters on a screen. This messaging was sinking into our subconscious, shaping how we see others—and ourselves—before we were even old enough to question it.

And it’s not just cartoons. It’s rom-coms where the “quirky” best friend is always in a bigger body while the thin lead gets the guy. It’s weight-loss commercials that tell us we’ll finally be happy once we drop 20 pounds. It’s a world that has been screaming at us since birth: Shrink yourself, or you’re not worthy.

Undoing the Damage (Because F*ck That Noise)

So, what do we do? First, we call this sh*t out when we see it. You are not broken. Your body is not a problem to be solved. The real problem is the system that made you feel like you had to hate yourself to fit in.

Start questioning the messages you absorbed. Next time you watch a movie, ask yourself: Would this character be treated differently if they were thin? When you feel guilty for eating a “bad” food, ask: Who taught me this was bad?

And let’s not forget the biggest one—if you’ve got kids in your life, be the one who stops passing down the toxic BS. Let them see you loving your body as it is. Let them hear you talk about strength, joy, and confidence instead of calories and diets.

Teri Hofford (who is an absolute badass in the body image space) talks a lot about how body image isn’t about how you look—it’s about how you think. And shifting your thinking? That’s where the real power is. (Check out her work here)

Final Thoughts: You Deserve to Take Up Space

If no one has told you this yet today: You are not too big, too much, or taking up too much space. You do not have to shrink to be lovable, valuable, or worthy. You already are. Now, go out there and own it.

Ready to love your body as it is? Reach out & let’s chat!