Slimderella

Here's a funny take of how obsessed our society is with looks - The Story of Slimderalla

I must show this to a male co-worker, S, who is obsessed about his weight. Well, actually, he's not just obsessed with his weight. He's basically obsessed about how he looks, whether others see him as a cool dude. Nope, he's not a teenager. He's in fact in his mid-30s. He has undergone a drastic transformation since last year - truly a changed man in terms of looks and sadly his personality too. But he's still not satisfied with how he looks, and complains that he's fat. Heh those female co-workers who weigh more than him would shoot him dirty looks whenever he says that. I told him he's suffering from body-image problem.

One would think that a person who is this dissatisfied with the way he looks would positively hate looking into the mirror. S, on the contrary, actually loves mirrors. In fact, he has 2 mirrors in front of him at his work-station. So there you have it - a possibly anorexic person who at the same time probably suffers from narcissism. Really contradictory.

I guess the only way I can explain the apparent contradiction is his insecurity. Even though he knows that his appearance has improved greatly (that's why he derives great pleasure looking into the mirror to admire himself), his insecurity made him wonder if he's good looking enough in the eyes of others and hence the constant need to cut his weight, look better, appear cool, etc. At the end of the day, it's rather sad, isn't it?