We get our insecurities from the comments and judgments of others. Takes a long while to get those insecurities out of our heads, and learn to be happy with ourselves and others without judgment. All we can do is be healthy and pleasant enough for our needs.

There's always going to be people who are closer or further from perfection than us, but since there really is no such thing as perfect, we all just need to stop all the comparing and be happy with ourselves and others, so we can get on to more important things.

I didn't understand the link - perhaps it's for a show I'm not familiar with.

Yes I agree.

Here’s a good reminder of how people prey and profit on body insecurities….

Liver King Being Sued For $25 Million By New York Man For “Deceiving” Customers

Liver King became a social media sensation over the last year preaching a unique diet that includes liver, brains, testicles, and other organs. He publicly claimed that he was not on steroids and never used them in the past. This turned out to be a lie and the suit is claiming that this misrepresentation persuaded his customers to buy his supplement products.

[generationiron.com]

Yes and No is my reply to the question….

No, first…because I think they’re victims of conditioning, whereby societal norms are dictated by the advertising industry and it’s attendant media, by promoting certain ideal stereotypes.
Yes, second…because these ideal looks then do feed into our insecurities as many are unrealistic, unattainable, or indeed undesirable to begin with.

You can be sure of one thing over everything else…it will involve lots of people making a lot of cash out of the beauty/health industry which has sprung up around fixing us up to fit these so called “human ideals”.

It’s a regrettable fact that most of us are are susceptible to a greater or lesser degree…and there’s no use in us denying it. That’s probably due to, perhaps unacknowledged, vanity we harbour inside.

I think there’s a blurred line here between social norms — where good skin, a dazzling smile, and a killer body open doors in terms of mating, career, influence, and so on — and obsessive behavior — where the pursuit of this elusive perfection interferes with relationships, undermines physical health and mental wellbeing, disrupts professional and personal goals, etc.

It kind of comes down to what we mean by “perfection,” I guess, because I could consider myself perfect within a certain tolerance of body shape/size, but be aware that it’s not perfect if I’m frequently injuring myself in the gym to get my body fat level down to two percent. For me, health — physical and mental — is part of achieving perfection (though I would never use that term, but for the purposes of this conversation I’ll use it in place of “my personal ideal&rdquo.

For someone else, perfection might be an unattainable goal, continual comparison with other people, and so on. In that, I think it would be disordered thinking and behavior, sabotaging the quality of life rather than enhancing it.

Perhaps the best way I can think of this is to ask a simple question of myself: Outside of appearance targets, what are my other interests and goals? If I can barely think of anything else that’s important to me — family, friendships, partner, career, creativity, whatever — or think the only way I can achieve those things is through the perfection of my face and body, then it’s risen to the level of obsession and, yes, it very well may be, at that point, that I’m the victim of my own insecurities.

/2¢

Yes

Absolutely!

Yes, and also the desires of those they wish to impress. :'(

Yes, they will be vain

If we go back to between 1957 - 1976 we could ask the original cast. I fear their answers would not be so socially acceptable for todays audiences.