Madeline Kuhns is a journalism senior and Mustang News opinion columnist. The opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Mustang Media Group.
Stepping foot onto the leisure deck of Cal Poly’s Recreation pool, students lay out half-naked bodies on display, I’m automatically overwhelmed with one thought: Why don’t I look like some of these people?
I have felt increased pressure to fit in with the standard of fitness at Cal Poly. Throughout my years here, maintaining a healthy relationship with my body has been one of the hardest challenges.
I find myself immediately sucking in my stomach, thinking I should’ve done a few more sets before I left the gym and reconsidering what I brought for lunch. I shouldn’t have to feel this way in my community, and neither should you.
Cal Poly being an active campus is not new. The multi-level gym is often crowded, and a plethora of natural landscapes provide plenty of outdoor activities for students. The positive promotion of exercise and fitness is great, but at what point does our school’s fitness obsession pose a threat to student’s relationships with their bodies?
Surrounded by comparison on campus
Being a full-time student on campus is a magnifier for the comparative mirror. As a freshman, I was always in the gym, my classes or the dining hall looking at other people’s bodies compared to mine.
Sydney McGuirk, an agricultural business junior, feels that living on campus has had an overall negative effect on her body image.
McGuirk feels that Cal Poly has a reputation of being hyper-fit. “I think that because we live in such a beautiful place, it kind of fits into the stereotype,” McGuirk said. “We have the beach and we have the mountains and hiking and all that active stuff, and so people assume ‘Oh, at Cal Poly you’re going to be fit.’
Cal Poly’s student body being so active is a great thing. We are a campus of go-getters, and work hard, play hard people. But it reaches a certain point where exercise and dieting seem to take over some students’ lives.
As important as fitness and health are, college is a time to enjoy our youth and prioritize spending time with our peers. I believe there can totally be a healthy balance to exercise, mental health and other hobbies.
Skinny-tok and social media
Not only does campus life contribute to the pressure to be fit, but social media and the recent influx in fitness influencers lead to online comparison. A trend of “body checking” and fitness influencers who claim to have the key to weight loss have taken over my Instagram feed.
There is a common theme, especially in women, of making yourself smaller. Not only is this harmful to physical aspects of women’s bodies, but also the mental mindset that we are meant to take up less space.
I am so tired of opening my phone and seeing another reel of just someone’s stomach, or a “what I eat in a day” video, but it starts with a frame of the influencer’s body. I just want to enjoy what I eat and not have every meal be about “fueling my body” and “trying to stay thin.”
On top of our peers posting body checks, another world of fitness influencers and health gurus make their way onto our feeds and cloud judgement with the pressure to be thin.
Alli Reyes, a nutrition junior, emphasized the weight-loss drug craze and artificial weight-loss remedies’ influence on body dysmorphia. The trend is creating unrealistic standards that are being more commonly accepted as the norm.
“I feel like that image (thinness) right now is so daunting,” she said. “People don’t care about using the medications the proper way because they just want to look their best,” Reyes said.
You’re not a “fat chud”
Another factor that has been contributing to increased pressure of body image is the way that we talk about our bodies around friends and acquaintances. Though this is often in a joking manner, I think we have over-normalized terms like “fatty” or “fat chud” alongside other derogatory terms. More harm than we realize is caused by the way we talk.
We wouldn’t seriously call our friends names with such a negative tone, so why don’t we have the same treatment for ourselves? How you talk to yourself can have an effect on how you perceive yourself.
Your value isn’t based on how you look
Your health is not always representative of the way you look. You never know what’s really going on behind the scenes of other people’s bodies. Someone could look toned and healthy, but they could be restricting themselves from the food they actually enjoy, spending hours overworking in the gym or taking some kind of drug to help them lose or gain weight.
When you end senior year, you won’t be thinking about what you ate on that random Sunday night or what your body looked like in the pictures of you at the ZB Tahiti party in your bikini.
To avoid getting down on yourself and overly comparing others, there are a few things to practice. First, base your feelings on how your body feels and the enjoyment you get out of food and working out instead of how you look.
Something else I’ve had to take into account is the type of exercise I choose, and the way it affects my mental health and shapes my body.
I had to accept that my body will never look like a lot of the influencers I see online because I have spent years training in a sport that changes your body. I appreciate the way my sports make my body look (I always have to work a little less hard on my glutes from all the treading water).
If exercise is something you enjoy, I’ve learned it’s important to practice methods that surround you with other people. One of the best decisions I’ve made was joining a club sport. You’re telling me I get to hang out with all my silly friends, and I’m burning tons of calories just passing around a ball?
At the end of the day, your body is the least interesting thing about you. People love you for your kindness, humor and all the right reasons.
