“Kids these days are so insecure!”
Opinion
“Kids these days are so insecure.” Comments such as these are popular in explaining adolescents today, and despite its generalization, when looking around us, it is true. To begin, this article is written from a female, American adolescent perspective, and thus will not be able to direct the insecurities of every country, age group, and gender. However, despite one’s differences, every society has been surrounded by unreachable standards, most of which are influenced by one’s culture and community, and by understanding its falsity and discovering the true measurement of one’s worth, this article can be beneficial in the journey of interpreting one’s self-worth. In this article, one will focus on what causation lies at the center of such insecurity in American culture, and most importantly, who and what decides an individual’s worth.
Unpacking “Idolatry” in Our Culture
Despite the surrounding culture having the disguise of likes, admiration, and idols, individuals are left with insecurity, fear, and doubt at the end of the day. American culture is influenced by people, and what its majority is impressed with. When analyzing the trends of the greatest influencers throughout history, one can discover that each of them has achieved something that society had deemed impossible. When an impossibility became possible, it was the next challenge, which formed a new, more impossible body as the next standard. According to, “An Unprogressive Evolution,” by Hanna Perry, the 1400s were all about women having round, curvy bodies, suitable for childbirth, and having excess fat was a sign of wealth, thus was rare, since not many individuals had enough money to achieve this body. In contrast, according to “Ideal Body Types Throughout History,” by Emma Wang, the 1990s were for extremely thin and translucent-skinned female anatomies, because models were the idols of society, and only the rarely thin bodies were deemed acceptable to be on stage. However, the body standard today is being “healthy,” in which certain features are larger while others are thin, which is extremely rare and is usually only possible with certain genetics or surgery.
When carefully analyzing the progression of these body ideals, each generation does not merely change the trend but keeps the previous standard while adding another requirement to its idol. For example, in the 1950s, a long-legged, hourglass figure was ideal, but in the 1960s, the trend changed to requiring long-legged and slender figures. Then, in 1970, the ideal was a long-legged, slender, athletic look, which was the combination of the two ideals of the 1950s and 1960s with the addition of athleticism. Thereafter, in the 1990s were for the tall thin models. Consequently, in the present day, the women’s body standard is a combination of all the standards of history, having an hourglass, long-legged, athletic tone, tall, and thin body. In addition, the body standards of each decade are not merely random trends combined at each occasion but are influenced by the influential figures of each society, as mentioned previously. The idols of each decade are chosen by the “achievement” of the individual, one of an impossible body trait. This is because more common bodies do not receive praise or demand, since they are not surprising to society. In simplistic terms, the body standards are merely evaluated by the impossibility to obtain them, and their maintenance of the standards before.
Impossibility Disguised As Health
But if these bodies were merely goals, then why do they make others insecure? Why do individuals choose not to make influencers their idols? This is because there is a deeper side to these standards. Body standards promote impossible bodies and exacerbate them by disguising impossibility as “health.” Despite these bodies being impossible to achieve, and requiring unhealthy amounts of exercise, dieting, and surgery, they are deemed ideal. But making someone an idol has much weight. An idol is someone that one not only praises but someone one wants to become. They are the best, the ideal, and can quickly be framed to be what everyone’s “best” should be. However, a body of an influencer is merely their anatomy and does not decide what is best for anyone else. Hence, with idols defining body standards, the incentive is the impossibility of achievement, and the objective is to get individuals to pursue it and name one body the best version of all society. But, it’s not self, it’s someone else’s body, one that is extremely impossible to achieve, but is framed as the new best for society to follow.
By creating idols, the attainment of that body comes with presents of acceptance, acknowledgment, and fame specifically gratified on social media. According to the American Psychological Association, these social rewards are more appealing to teens than adults because “Receptors for the ‘happy hormones’ oxytocin and dopamine multiply in a part of the brain called the ventral striatum, making preteens extra sensitive to attention and admiration from others.” Thus, the brains of younger viewers of social media are more prone to seek social affirmation and idolize bodies displayed online, which causes them to become insecure about their individual states. Since society makes adolescents believe that by achieving an idolized body the person has achieved something ideal, the impossible, and the best that person can be when being unable to attain such a body, they feel unworthy and in need of becoming better. However, another woman or man’s body is not something to idolize, especially not to chase after, since optimal health is subjective for each individual. Having the body of one’s idols does not make someone healthy, or their best self. It nearly achieves the opposite, since the attainment of the impossible body requires unhealthy amounts of exercise, dieting, and plastic surgery. Thus, the idolatry of society disguises impossibility as health, which causes adolescents to believe they are not enough, and why, “kids these days are so insecure.”
What You Can Do
In the end, nobody is born to be someone else. The culture of idolizing individuals is not kind, or loving, but is what grows insecurity and the illusion of another person’s body as one’s ideal health. If one truly desires to become their best self, then one must first begin with the understanding that one’s worth has nothing to do with another person’s body or state. Society today must shift from the focus on looking at others to understanding oneself. To continue the practice of idolatry is harmful, not only to oneself but to all adolescents, who have followed the trend of blindly following others instead of stopping to discover themselves. Working to understand health and who one is as a person is not selfish, it is essential. Start doing the things one loves instead of burdening oneself with trying to mimic someone else, and remind others that their worth does not rest in their comparison to others.
Where Our Worth Lies
Despite understanding the “facts” of the insecurities of our idol-centered culture, one may still feel empty, isolated, and unworthy. This is because knowledge is only half of the equation. One can know that one’s worth does not lie in their body, but still believe that it does, and be influenced by the idolatrizing culture. If not in the body, one will instinctively consider the other parts of oneself, such as one’s moral righteousness, talents, or academic achievements to prove that one is worthy. However, all those qualities are nothing in defining one’s worth. One’s worth has no relation to one’s ability, character, or effort. This is because worth cannot be earned. It is something that is given and already unalterable from before one is born. Consider that one is taking a trip to the grocery store. One is buying a carton of eggs. There are many options, but in the end, one chooses the organic, free-range, and less pricy eggs, because they seem like they have the best worth. The bottom line is, that the customer trusts the labels to be true and that this carton is good enough for the consumer. But if one were to ask an unbiased, expert farmer, with the knowledge of which hens and environments can produce the best quality eggs, they would discover the true worth of the eggs. This farmer knows completely the subject of egg production and decides which eggs are truly worthy of being sold. For example, one meets with the farmer, and he shows the customer that after opening the carton, the eggs are broken, dirty, and leaking. Hence, because the eggs have no product value, the farmer has every right to throw them away.
Despite the story’s obscurity, it is a metaphor for how we humans, are imperfect, like the eggs, and are created by God. There is only One who has the authority to judge us because He knows the subject of humans completely. We, as humans, have disguises, but inside are broken, and are leaking sin from our “soiled” hearts, and are thus unworthy of God, our Creator, and for anyone on this Earth. Because God is perfect we are unworthy of his love, as well as love from any of his creations. However, one might believe that Ms. Egg Patricia has a couple more cracks than oneself. However, despite the number of sins one may believe to have unless one has no sin, not a single one, they are in the same brokenness as every other sinner. It is either perfection or sin, and there are no levels to the sins one has committed and righteousness to be judged between people. Therefore, since no one is perfect, we are all unworthy.
But, there is hope. This hope is one that Christ, someone completely perfect, also known as the free range, triple golden yolk, organic egg, died so that God sees us as Christ’s perfect righteousness, instead of our sins. We were once separated from God because of our sins, but are now reconciled by His sacrifice. Thus, we are unworthy but are deemed worthy by God, who is the only One, like the farmer, that can determine our worth. Now, all we need to do is believe it. Believe that you are worthy, not based on your actions, but by God’s actions, who went through all of the pain we created in the world to be with us and have a relationship with us. This truth, now, frees us. One is no longer alone, missing, or unworthy. One IS worthy, and one does not need to strive to prove or become worthy. Believe it to be true, and one will experience the true joy, love, belonging, and freedom that one was created for.
