Besides the inordinate amount of recipes for things involving Nutella, stuff to Mod Podge , print, or sew together, pictures that are supposed to be humorous because a child or animal is using expletives, and fantasy wedding, house, and party decorations, there are also a great many thinspiration pins on Pinterest. I’ve got nothing against Pinterest. I pin away with the best of them. If you haven’t stopped by Pinterest, it’s a virtual pinboard of likes.
You like it, you pin it.
Apparently we like scantily clad women with absolutely perfect bodies running, looking in mirrors, walking down beaches, or hitting it hard in the gym. The less clothes the better. We like to put things below the pictures that say things like motivation or goal or dream body. We like to offer advice of how we pin these pictures to our fridges like omens to ward off evil things like Ben & Jerry’s or that fabulous Nutella recipe you made.
flickr photo by katietegtmeyer
Thinspiration is the motivation toward the ultimate goal of Photoshop perfect abs, boobs that have never breast fed, and a bottom that defies gravity.
How do we get thinspiration? Simple. We covet someone elses body. We set that as our goal. It’s certainly not just about health. We’re not pinning these women’s cholesterol levels or their volume of oxygen while on the treadmill.
We like to say motivational things like, “She didn’t get that way by sitting on the couch and eating crap.” Ahhh, inspiring.
Truth be told, I’ve bought into it. I used to get Self magazine. The title really should tip you off. I’m not saying it’s a terrible magazine. It has some health tips, healthy recipes, exercise programs, and product reviews that could be useful for someone trying to get or stay fit. But it also has something that is at the core of why thinspiration is so dangerous.
It inspires idolatry for women and men. It idealizes a body that is unrealistic for most women. It inspires lust in even the best of men. Even the most beneficial things like fitness and good health can be morphed into something that raises it to the level of worship.
Most of us were not born with the genes that would allow us to have bodies like that even if we ate like birds and exercised constantly. Before and after pictures usually show massive weight loss results in a thinner, more fit body but most of them still don’t look like the thinspiration poster girls, even at their fittest.
flickr photo by perfectoinsecto
Why do we crave bodies like that? I’d venture it’s Worship.
We crave worship. Adoration. Admiration. It’s pride and it’s idolatry.
You may say that there is nothing wrong with trying to look a certain way. After all, we style our hair or pick out clothes according to what we like and admire. We want to look good and feel good about ourselves. There’s nothing wrong with that.
What if you did win the genetic lottery and you do look like that? Is it wrong?
It may seem parochial to some to harp on this. Are all God-fearing women to wear oversized floral jumpers and admonish anyone who wears makeup so we don’t invite body worship?
I say “yes!” Just kidding. I’m fresh out of floral jumpers. But I will say that this is a place where we balance the line of legalism (à la mandatory floral jumpers) or worldliness (as seen in thinspiration.)
If you had perfect abs would you wear a modest cut one piece swim suit? If your butt could defy gravity, would you not strut around in skin-tight yoga pants? Would you work that hard to get a perfect body and cover it all up so you don’t stumble your brothers in Christ or your sisters for that matter?
Would modesty and humility be what you clothed yourself in to honor the God that gave you that bod in the first place? If you did cover it all up, would you spend a lot of time getting dressed so you could admire yourself in the mirror? Would you obsess if you didn’t make it to the gym, gained a few pounds, or ate dessert? Be honest. Would it be hard? If you’re pinning thinspirations in your heart I would argue that it would be.
Back to the balance. Is it wrong to look good? No. Is it wrong to feel good? No.
Is our culture predicated on the desire to appeal sexually to men, be admired by our peers, and be revered for our discipline in eating and exercising? Yes.
Otherwise, there would be no models or thinspiration boards.
Can that be worship of self above the God we are to glorify? Yes.
Whenever our hearts say,” look at me,” to the detriment of those around us, it’s idolatry.
If we wear clothes that provokes lust in someone, we’re breaking down that relationship. If we inspire insecurity in others by the way we flaunt ourselves, it’s a breakdown of relationship.
If we are insecure and obsess over how we look, it is a breakdown of relationship with God’s own image, us. Yup, I am created in His image right now, even without the perfect body.
Insecurity and pride are just two different sides of the same coin. They are both an obsession over self.
Now as the girl with the lifelong fat suit, one might think it would be easy to abstain from clothes that stumble someone and I’m certainly not inspiring jealousy among my peers by my awesome body. And it is easy, now. But modesty and humility are born in the heart and only then do they transfer outward.
If I motivate myself now by thinspiration, I may get to the gym or abstain from the ice cream but my heart will still be on the goal. The worship of myself. My eyes are fixed inward on myself by fixing outward on a worldly ideal.
What happens if I shed this fat suit and idolatrous relationship with food to replace it with an idolatrous relationship with my body? Will my heart be modest when my body doesn’t require plus sized clothes? Will my heart be humble when I could get attention from others? I would love to say, yes, but I fear that it would not be true if I got there by focusing on what I hoped to look like. Thinspiration can be a powerful motivator, but at what cost?
To be motivated to stop the idolatry and be freed from those chains, one has to replace that covetous nature with grace from the Lord.
We find grace not in our motivation, but in our surrender.
And that’s where the fight comes in.
The fight to surrender the ideals of this world to the ideals of God.
The fight to surrender my own glory for God’s.
The fight to put my will aside and abide only in Him.
The fight to surrender my desires, my attitudes, my pride and my insecurities and be found in Him only.
What an awesome article and some great points! I’m currently engaged in a battle to take off the “fat suit” for health reasons but I confess that the reference to worship strikes home. I’ll have to think on this some more. Came here via the Blissdom link-up. Glad to meet you!
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Thanks Beth,
It’s great to know you are pursuing a healthier lifestyle. I’ve seen your posts on your blog about your knees and wish you the best. I know for me, my “fat suit” is directly related to my relationship with God not just my relationship with food. Taking the weight off through diet and exercise is great and definitely something we should do as good stewards of our bodies but if we don’t get to the heart of why we overeat, we can never really be set free. I’ve been going through a study called The Lord’s Table. It’s free online at http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/courses/lords-table/ and you can have an accountability partner or you can order the workbook for about $15 on Amazon and do it on your own or with a friend. It really gets to the heart of our motivations and our walk with God. I would highly recommend it. Hope to meet you at Blissdom. It’s my first year also. I’m really excited.
Wow. Excellent article and perspective. God designed us to worship, however, with the entrance of sin comes the temptation to worship the wrong things. What a fantastic reminder that it’s all about our hearts. Of course, everything in our relationship with the Lord comes back to our hearts. I’m here from Simple Mom and am enjoying checking out your blog!
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Thanks for stopping by. Your’e so right. It is all about our hearts. I know I am constantly being reminded how easy it is to replace God with other things in my life without even really being aware of it. Thanks for the encouragement, I”m glad you decided to drop in.
also over from simple mom; your site is lovely. a comment from the other side… I’m blessed to be 5’8″ and 125 lbs (w. 2 girls I breastfed for combined 4 years), age 35, with a good metabolism (obviously). I might be skinny, but thinspiration rears its evil head to all of us… I still cover up and dress without staring in the mirror: I have stretch marks and bulges, but also no chest to speak of (couldn’t fill a A cup to save my life, but please note again the above breast feeling remark). just wanted to say that just because we’re skinny, doesn’t mean we’re any more content with our bodies, any less sinful with not accepting what we’ve been blessed with. I was once standing in the locker room while 2 women directly next to me discussed their breast enhancement surgeries and “how much better they look now and how awful it was to ‘not have breasts’ before” … I crossed my arms over my chest and quickly left, feeling like an embarrassed teen again, feeling like everyone was laughing behind their hands. here’s to all of us accepting the glory of God that’s in us through Jesus… and wishing you the very best.
You are so right that skinny doesn’t mean content. I totally understand where you are coming from and please know that I am not saying that if you do have a good metabolism or don’t struggle with weight gain that I think there is any less temptation to listen to the lies of this world. In my first post in the series I talked about a lot of skinny girls walking around in invisible “fat suits.” When I say fat suit, I am kind of relating that to anything about our looks or self image that we feel covers us from seeing God’s image. I guess I take it to mean that we all carry our self perceptions and inadequacies like chains and I wanted to emphasize how draining it is. This is my personal struggle with my self image but even before I was fat at all, I felt horribly inadequate or immensely prideful and vain. All of it is a trap. I do know women close to me that have bodies near perfection and struggle immensely with these same issues. Pride and insecurity are both obsession over self. We can only reflect God’s glory as we surrender to His reflection and not our own. Thanks so much for sharing your own struggles. I know that so many of us have different body types, insecurities, and struggles and it’s awesome to be able to relate and encourage each other to accept God’s unfailing grace.
I wandered over from Simple Mom, and just wanted to say I love your blog! Great thoughts to ponder.
Thanks Kim, I’m glad you are enjoying it.
I have loved reading your blog and am sharing some blog love by giving you an award
It is today’s post on my blog. Have a wonderful day
Heather,
I’m honored.
Thanks so much for reading my blog and especially for the award.
“Pride and insecurity are both obsession over self. We can only reflect God’s glory as we surrender to His reflection and not our own”. Really like how you said that.
Surrendering to His reflection… this means we need to fall in love with Him … get to know Him by spending time with Him … Relationship… hmm! Yes something I need to strive for daily. This can’t happen only by talking about Him or doing for Him … but … by being with Him. My favorite and most intimate times with Him is when there is no one around just Him and me, worship music playing and me wholly given to Him, … dancing, singing, crying out to Him. This is when I feel “surrendered to His reflection”. Thanks Alia Joy … for your heart.
Hello – I really enjoyed what you had to say. I have been pondering this idea of balance for a few years: We are to treat our bodies as a temple to the Lord – taking care of it through eating healthy, exercise, etc, but when we are in a relationship with Him, we are not to do anything that doesn’t glorify Him. I would consider my relationship with the Lord solid, but when I try to reconcile this idea of balance – it gets sticky. I do plenty of things that do not glrofiy Him – does this includ exercise? Hmmm….but getting back to your article, I am guilty of thinspiration, pride and vanity. I exercise 4 to 5 times/week, am 5’5″, 125 pounds – have a near-perfect body – but still struggle with looking perfect. I always say that it is for me, so I feel good inside my own skin, but when I search my motivations it does include admiration for other men and women. I will take to heart what you have said and pray for true humility and modesty. Thanks!
It is really hard to admit sometimes. Sometimes we don’t even realize when it becomes idolatry. But the fact that you are seeking balance and you know you have issues with thinspiration, allows you to enter a place where God can meet you. I am so deeply in process of all this and I preach it to myself daily. I need to take care of my body, and I haven’t. But I also know that I want to glorify God with everything I do, so Yes, prayer for true humility and modesty is a great place to start. Thanks for visiting my blog and for being honest and sharing your heart about where you are with all of this. May God bless you as you surrender to Him.
I just stumbled across your blog and find it very encouraging, especially the parts on depression.
This post is excellent and it addresses idolatry so well, all the hidden ways that we fall into it.
I feel compelled, though, to share that God made me 5’11″ 150 lbs. athletic, and still we can fall into this. That is the danger, that no matter who we are, Satan plays on this sin of vanity, that one is never good enough. But also, we must be careful not to make assumptions of our brothers and sisters in Christ based on their stature. Self-righteousness that comes from judging others appearance goes both ways. It can be very difficult to look past the exterior, and in my life, church people (I don’t say Christians for a reason) have never easily embraced me. I’ve been reprimanded for being provocative in a mumu. Somehow, “God made me this way” doesn’t translate to “beautiful” people. There’s an expectation to be more humble, more modest, prove to the rest of you that I don’t think I’m better just because you think I think I am, like the Spanish inquisition…and suddenly one isn’t good enough anywhere in this world, not with myself, not even among church goers. The world can be a lonely place for everyone.
That’s when I turn to God. And I thank Him for guiding me to your blog.
Thanks Anna, I am always glad to meet new readers. I have some people in my life who are by all accounts “beautiful” and who very much struggle with insecurity or appearing to be too prideful or whose natural figure make it easy to judge out of jealousy or misunderstanding. I know people who are drop dead gorgeous and the most down to earth people you will ever meet. So, I know for me, the ultimate test is in my own heart. And while I respect others opinions based on modesty, vanity etc. I know the true test comes down to God and I. He is the one that searches me and He is the only one I am ultimately accountable to. So, if you have been judged wrongly by your appearance or singled out because of how God made you, know that if you are blameless before Him, You are blameless and that is someone else’s problem. If you’re not and find that you are struggling with self-image, idolatry, or issues with modesty, God is forever merciful and kind and His gentle grace helps to cover those areas as He continues to work in our lives. It sounds like there has been some hurt in the communities or church you have gone to. I pray that you find a place where God can meet that loneliness and I am blessed that you came here and shared your heart. Hope to see you again Anna.
Alia, I read this awhile back and just re-read it again to remind myself of your prophetic and poignant words. I so totally appreciate your writing on this (and everything else you tackle). I’ve fought over and over to get my feelings about this on pape, never coming out quite right, but you have once again nailed it.