A few days ago, someone asked me what I watch on television, and I told her I don't watch television. I got back a terrifying stare as if I had just walked out of a UFO that had landed in front of her eyes.
I stopped watching television a long time back, and there are valid reasons for that. Just look at the famous contents that are broadcasted:
Television series which lacks knowledge and give out wrong, absolutely wrong messages to the viewers.
Reality shows, well. No. Just no. Being someone who isn't exactly perfect in any particular aspect, I admire every talent but the amount of drama effects they have is way too high for my brain to handle. Well, that was a personal opinion.
Movies. I don't remember a lot of movies that made sense. Only a few, very few, that I saw were logical and well-presented.
News? I prefer reading than watching, and that too verify whatever I read from different websites, and only read what I should be bothered about, which is far less than what is broadcasted.
But for the sake of entertainment, that's all fine. What's terribly bad about the contents on television are the advertisements.
A lot of advertisements are made to hit where it hurts- our insecurities. I don't know how many of us realize that.
A woman doesn't get her dream job in an office. She is devastated. Then comes her extremely fair, light-emitting friend, who hands over a cream tube, and then magic happens.
The next day, the woman gets fairer, along with the job, and the day after, a promotion. A few days later, she leads the office.
Moral of the story: Why study and crack competitive exams and stuff, when all you need to do is buy a cream tube costing a few bucks and rule the world thereafter?
There are many such advertisements, which are so famous, that the sales of such products are high. Extremely high.
I believe basic education is extremely important. Why so? Because it teaches things like “skin colour cannot be changed by just applying a cream or facewash or whatever they try selling under the pretext of fairness. Skin colour is a part of your genetic characters”. It teaches that “your body height depends on a lot of factors- like diet, metabolism, genes”.
It teaches a lot of things that would completely deny things told in advertisements, and let me tell you, the sales of such products are high, a huge credit goes to the marketing team, the advertisement section.
A reason why the companies know that they can earn out of these products is that they know that the people are really insecure about how they look, and they are insecure because someone else had told them that they do not match an appearance standard. That they were told that it is important to be perfect in terms of looks.
Body-shaming is a common thing, so common that we deal with it every day and still don't know what it is. You get called by certain names because of your appearance and you feel that you are supposed to change how you appear. You see advertisements on how changing your appearance permanently is a piece of cake, and there you are, buying it and then waiting for a miracle to happen. This is not how it works.
A lot of mental issues happen solely because of body-shaming. Heard of eating disorders? People start starving themselves because someone told them they are too fat, even if they were just healthy. Eating disorders are serious mental issues. Depression is another issue.
The next time you think of mocking someone, try understanding that you are potentially throwing someone into a bunch of issues that cannot be easily gotten over and that too over something that no one can control.
Taking care of one's own body is one thing. Living by appearance standards is another. Life would be so much easier if people understood the difference. Accept the way you are designed and you would see how beautiful you are, just the way you are.
Keep Smiling! 😊
Hey everyone! This post is one of my favourite one till now. I hope you like it. Feedbacks and suggestions are welcome. You can send me emails at saimasohail.officially@gmail.com
Author: Saima Sohail
About the author: A student, who likes to write in her free time. Expressing her views and talking about her experiences in studies, and life values, in general, are all that she does when she writes.
Note: All the pictures that have been published on this blog are copyright-free and are obtained from “unsplash.com”
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