Mind and Body

In the world we live in today there are countless numbers of stereotypes for everything, especially people’s physical attributes.  These stereotypes can really affect people’s feelings about themselves and their confidence. In my mashboard I wanted to show examples of those stereotypes and also the struggles people with body confidence issues go through everyday.

In the book Hunger by Roxane Gay she shares her sexual assault story along with how it affected her relationship with her body. I put quotes of hers from the book onto my mashboard explaining how she viewed the assumptions of her body. “When you’re overweight, your body becomes a matter of public record in many respects. Your body is constantly and prominently on display. People project assumed narratives onto your body and are not at all interested in the truth of your body, whatever that truth might be. Fat, much like skin color, is something you cannot hide, no matter how dark the clothing you wear, or how diligently you avoid horizontal stripes” (p. 120).  It’s really hard to hide your body from the world. It’s they’re for everyone to see. For Roxane and many other people the idea of going out into public and have people look at them and assume, based on their physical appearance, things about their work ethic, drive, and lifestyle is a stressful things.

I chose to use the picture of a girl at the center of a maze to create dialogue around my mashboard. I thought that putting the picture on the mashboard would have people asking questions about what the deeper meaning of the picture is.  Many people struggle with body confidence issues. I think the image encapsulates the feeling perfectly. LIke a maze, the journey to find yourself can take a while and sometimes you go won’t be going the right way. But in the picture you can see the maze has many different routes to get to the center. Just like there are many different ways to find self love and security.

I also incorporated a scale on my mashboard. I made the scale with the message “STOP WORRYING ABOUT THE NUMBER ON THE SCALE”. I thought it was important to have something like this on my mashboard because peoples weight is a really sensitive topic for some people.  For many people, the more the scale numbers go up, the worse they feel about themselves. I wanted to really send the message that people shouldn’t obsess over things like weight just because they think they weigh more than they should.

I decided to put two quotes in the center of my mashboard because I did not want to leave an empty space between the two bodies. I used these specific quotes because they I think they tie together the whole theme of the board. The top quote by Ross Snyder from The Person Sitting Next to You says “The person sitting next to you has a right to be a person; that is, she has a right to choose and decide, to have a private life of her own. She also has a right to be understood. And unless she can be understood by other people, she is thwarted from being a person”  (Snyder). It’s human nature to judge people based on first impressions. Anytime you see a person you make assumptions about them in your head whether you believe the assumptions or not. The quote explains how everyone is their own unique person and everyone has the right to be themselves. It shows that you never really know what the next person is going through.