THE PHYSICAL SELF

“You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably flawed. And you are beautiful.”
-Amy Bloom
Who is beautiful? How can you say
that someone is beautiful?
 Do you believe in the saying:

“Beauty is Power”
Why do you look
like you?
CULTURAL STANDARDS OF
BEAUTY
 CULTURAL STANDARDS OF BEAUTY
19th century in Tahiti: some men and women were set aside in a special place for fattening
purposes (Pollock, 1995)

◦ Covered in large amounts of tapa barkcloth, which, after the ritual is over, reveals a
lighter skin for those who were selected

◦ GOAL: enhance their beauty, not only by feeding them but by making sure that they get
a lighter skin afterwards

◦ Also recorded in Nigeria during ancient times when being fat was viewed as a sign of
prosperity, fertility and beauty

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 “
beauty was not just a product of wealth, but a
commodity in and of itself. In other words, it was no
longer a matter of looking to wealth to find beauty,
but of looking to beauty to find status. Now, beauty
could give the illusion of wealth.

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THE FILIPINO OBSESSION
WITH BEAUTY
The Case of Xander Ford

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The Filipino Obsession with Beauty
◦ Shiryl Saturnino – died while undergoing three
procedures due to fat embolism

◦ Women have been evaluated based on their

appearance more than men (Wade, 2017)

◦ Hence, they underwent unnecessary cosmetic

surgeries due to that desire of wanting to look good, if
not perfect.

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 “
They want to be more pleasing, to be more
beautiful. They consider that having a beautiful
face and body is always an edge in most aspects of
life, especially in getting into their chosen career.

-Sallan, 2017

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A HEALTHY BODY IMAGE,
AND SELF-ESTEEM IN PERIL

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What can you say
about men and
women who go
through cosmetic
surgeries?
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 ANOREXIA
“a serious mental illness where people are of low weight due to limiting
their energy intake. It can affect anyone of any age, gender, or
background. As well as restricting the amount of food eaten, they may do
lots of exercise to get rid of food eaten. Some people with anorexia may
experience cycles of bingeing (eating large amounts of food at once) and
then purging,” (Anorexia, 2017)

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 BODY SHAMING
citicizing yourself or others because of some aspect of
physical appearance (Vargas, 2014)

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 BODY IMAGE DISTURBANCE
Important aspect of several pathologies in psychology,
particularly eating disorders
❖ perceptual component

❖ attitudinal component

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 Have you ever been
body shamed? How did
it make you feel and how
did you handle it?
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THE FILTERED SELF
 INSTAGRAM
◦ Most famous photo-sharing application

◦ We post our most physically appealing self

◦ more often than not, we use filter applications, where we

can hide our imperfections, creating, and recreating a self

◦ Gives us the freedom to alter our looks, and present our

physical selves, not just the way we want it, but the way
our society approves it

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 When was the last time you posted an
unfiltered photo of yourself in any social
media accounts? Why? What do you
think this is saying about your idea of
beauty, and your self-esteem?

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CELEBRATING
BEAUTY IN
DIVERSITY
 “a culture of resistance”
Women should stand against the cultural requirement on what they
should do with their bodies.

→ culture that veers away from the dictates of what women in society
should look like to be called beautiful

- Sheila Jeffreys (2005)

Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West

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 Celebrating Beauty in Diversity

We are challenged at this time to speak up against body shaming

particularly that we are living in an image-driven virtual society.

Embracing our physical selves entails affirming each other regardless of

our skin color, stature, and body mass index.

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 Celebrating Beauty in Diversity

We are supposed to celebrate the authentic us, where we do not need to

hide our physical flaws and to resist the demands of a deprecating image
driven society.

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 “
We are deemed as the masterpiece of the Creator
of he universe, carefully, precisely, and worthily
created

Psalm, 139:14, NIV

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 “
You are imperfect, permanently and inevitably
flawed. And you are beautiful.

Amy Bloom

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 ASSIGNMENT: PHOTO FACE-OFF
Take a close-up picture of yourself. Filter the photo until you are satisfied with
the outcome but keep the unfiltered one. Print both photos and paste them
below.
#UNFILTEREDME #UNFILTEREDME
 ASSIGNMENT: PHOTO FACE-OFF

GUIDE QUESTIONS:

1. Are you happy with how you look in your unfiltered photo? Explain.

2. Are you happy with how you look in your filtered photo? Explain.

3. Which do you prefer, the filtered or the unfiltered photo? What do you
think your answer says about your self-esteem and confidence?
THANKS!
Any questions?

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