Body Image: Choices and Perspectives

Unknown Speaker 0:00
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Zandra Polard 0:51
Good morning, Las Vegas, it's Zondra Paul Nard it's where I am. Thank you for tuning in today, I am so glad that you thought about turning on your radio, your podcast, or whatever the case may be. I am here for your mental health needs. I provide resources to the community. And I just want to thank all of Las Vegas for doing such a wonderful job at keeping up with this programming, and being supporters of 91.5. FM, jazz, and more. So today, we're talking about body imaging. And I was to have a body consulting company here today. But unfortunately, they got booked out, because they're busy trying to, you know, convert contour, you know, bodies to make people feel better. But I wanted to get into the psychological part of choosing to do body imaging, you know, what is the reason why you want to do it. And when I spoke to the owner of this body imaging company, she was telling me that oftentimes, she has to do a bit of like, a little bit of counseling sometimes, like sometimes women, most of our clients are women. They're judged because they've chosen to, you know, do some augmentation or, you know, do some lifting or Botox, that they get a lot of criticism from other people. And a lot of times, it's not just because because the thought is usually you know, they're being vain. Right. But that's not always the case. Sometimes there's trauma attached to, you know, what they're trying to improve, you know, maybe they were, for example, put down by family members a lot about specific areas of their body. Right. And they're, they're trying to deal with it in a way that works best for them. And sometimes that's, that's body imaging. Okay, so we're talking about the pros and cons of it. I have my wonderful audio engineer here. Wesley Knight, thank you for being here. Always. So are you going to keep up with me talking about this body imaging stuff? Cuz I'm interested? Yeah, man. I went to the movies. All right. I want to go and see open Eimer Okay, yeah. Great movie. Yeah, I thought it would fall asleep. Three hours long. It's

Unknown Speaker 3:39
Christopher Nolan though that pacing is on point, man. Oh, is it

Zandra Polard 3:43
was awesome. Awesome. But when I was in the movie, and the movie theater there were a lot of people dressed up like Barbie. Yes, yes. And I was like wow, well the theater that the show I'm going to see it shouldn't be too crowded because everyone was there to see Barbie. Right? What do you think about this new Barbie movie?

Unknown Speaker 4:02
I haven't seen it I'm I want to the most I've known about the reaction to it is if you kind of got the vibe from the marketing and you know Greta Gerwig the director and her style going into it, it's going to be awesome. If you have like a fragile masculinity, like you're gonna have a hard you're gonna have a problem with

Zandra Polard 4:27
it. They're doing a lot with can like in terms of kind of shaming him in some way or putting him down because what I

Unknown Speaker 4:34
understand it to be is in Barbie world in the film, it uses Ken's position and man's position to comment on patriarchy on patriarchy that women suffer under in, in our society, right so I see it as as people who maybe don't have like the the critical lense. And so they see it and they're just they, they they completely miss the point right in front of their face. They miss the satire, they miss the commentary, but if it's what I think it is, I mean, I just love Ryan Gosling. Anyway, so I'm all about it, so I can't wait to see it. Well,

Zandra Polard 5:15
you know, I got a little criticism because, you know, I was told, you know, everyone's talking about the new Barbie movie and you should be talking about it too. On your show. You should be but you know, I already had planned to talk about body imaging. And so I was like, Okay, I'll throw some Barbie and something about that in there. Yeah. However, I did not go out of my way to talk about the Little Mermaid. So I did not think okay to talk about Barbie. No, because everybody's talking about Barbie. Everybody was talking about the Little Mermaid and it was so nice.

Unknown Speaker 5:45
No, no, because people have problems with the fictional character having a different skin tone for some reason, right? Yeah. And

Zandra Polard 5:52
I was trying to explain that when I was a little kid, you know, I grew up with Barbie. I got a Barbie every year from my grandmother bless her soul. Rest in heaven. Thank you for all those Barbies, grandma. However, when I had my daughter, I never ever bought her a Barbie. Like it was like I am so done with Barca

Unknown Speaker 6:15
do that to my child. Yeah,

Zandra Polard 6:18
you know, and I never, I didn't really play with, you know, the Barbie dolls. wasn't my thing. So I didn't have the excitement. You know, surrounding the movie.

Unknown Speaker 6:30
Right? Right. Yeah, no, I think the excitement comes from it clearly being made from like, a very, like a feminist icon perspective. And I think that that's awesome. So I'm all I'm all for that.

Zandra Polard 6:42
All right. Well, there we are. We talked about Barbie. There we go. I've done my part. Yeah. Moving on.

Unknown Speaker 6:49
I would roast Ben Shapiro. But it's not the place. Wait a minute, why Ben Shapiro just being basically projecting all of insecurities through his Roast of the Barbie movie because it's, it's a whole lot. It's a bunch of political commentary that isn't. It's not the place for it. It's just he's a silly little man with silly little opinions. And he really needs therapy.

Zandra Polard 7:13
Okay, well, you know, I didn't watch the movie. So there's not much that I can say I can't comment on, you know, what the perspective was, I can only give you my perspective of growing up with Barbie dolls that I did not particularly care for. Wasn't

Unknown Speaker 7:30
your thing? Wasn't my wife. Right? Yeah, same here. So

Zandra Polard 7:33
moving on. We might still want to stay on the topic of

Unknown Speaker 7:39
body audio imaging. Yeah, yes. And for

Zandra Polard 7:44
those who choose to do certain things with their bodies, so for me, you know, I can talk about getting older. Right? And thinking about different changes, you know, things I want to adjust, right? So for me, I had a girlfriend who told me she says, Oh, you know, we're getting older. I'm just embracing. You know, the gray hair? Yeah, I'm not embracing it. I'm not embracing it. I'm not there yet. Right. You know, so, you know, I still put a little color my hair, you know, it makes me feel attractive. Those are things that, you know, something I like to do, then of course, you know, and then we have those who want to do fillers, you know, do that Botox, and everything. And, you know, you kind of pick and choose where you want, what beauty treatments you want to do, right? But then when we're looking at younger children, okay. So let's talk about, like Blac Chyna. Okay, right. She has gone through this transformation where she has decided to, you know, get rid of the breasts in the butt implants, and, you know, get rid of the fillers and everything in our face. And so I saw that story a few days ago, and I thought, Oh, wow, interesting. I've never followed Blac Chyna. No, I haven't either, but it's on point of the topic of discussion, right. And I just was like, wow, taken aback not knowing much about her that, you know, she said, she's, she started doing things herself when she was like, 19 years old. Okay. Which I think is kind of young, because you're still, you know, you're still developing your brain is not fully developed. First of all, yeah, yeah. To make those type of decisions. Yeah. But, you know, people are doing it and some parents are, you know, subscribing to letting their children get things done at an early age.

Unknown Speaker 9:46
Well, I mean, once you're past the age of 18, you don't need parental consent for so true. But

Zandra Polard 9:52
like a person like Britney Spears, right, didn't she get breast implants at like 16? I don't know. But but we No, it's been done.

Unknown Speaker 10:00
I know, I know that's been done. And I also know specifically the Britney Spears that conservatorship that she was stuck under since she was a teenager was extremely restrictive and overbearing and like it's like contractual helicopter parenting. So that's like its own unique like, mess. Sure.

Zandra Polard 10:22
And then, you know, we see a lot of younger people getting tattoos. Yeah, you know, I love that thing. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 10:30
So my dad was a tattoo artists, okay. Yeah. So I'm desensitized to it. Man. I was, I was five years old. He had when I was five, he had a, he had his own tattoo shop where we lived in old near where we lived in Washington State. And I was like, that was very little. And I'd go in there all the time. And just kind of watch people get inked. Watch people get piercings, I would see up close and personal, what it was like and see what the culture was like. And so for me, tattoos are no big thing. I think if you want to get them, like, clearly be smart about it. Because like, think about it's going to be on your body forever. So like, just think it through a little bit. But I don't I don't subscribe to any of the shame of being Oh, you're too young or Oh,

Zandra Polard 11:15
so what is the youngest person you've seen with? Tattoo?

Unknown Speaker 11:20
Um, I had a buddy in high school. He was 14 or 15. He got his one of his favorite bands is Slayer, the metal band Slayer. And he happened to meet their one of their guitar play guitarists during a concert or tour or a meet and greet or something like that, and he was just like, hey, I don't have anything for you to sign. signed my shoulder. So you just took the marker, put his signature squiggles on his shoulder. And then he went to a tattoo shop or knew someone with a tattoo gun, and then just went over it to solidify it. So he has like a permanent tattoo of that signature on.

Zandra Polard 12:02
Okay, well, that sounds cool. But you can't sell it. No,

Unknown Speaker 12:06
no, no, I don't. I don't know quite how he got that all hooked up. But I mean, that's the youngest. I think we were 1516 years old. Okay. Yeah.

Zandra Polard 12:14
So when it comes to men, you know, to males, then we can kind of, you know, parallel, let's say tattoos for this compensate. Okay. Okay. But they expectancy for women, you know, to wear high heels. Okay, they're not comfortable.

Unknown Speaker 12:34
No, they're,

Zandra Polard 12:35
they're cute is all good.

Unknown Speaker 12:36
I've never understood why people wear them besides the look. Right?

Zandra Polard 12:40
And you know, when my understanding of the high heel was because it was attractive to men to see the woman in the high yield? Probably yeah. But you know, I don't know, I've got a closet full up here I heels. And I wear him because I love them. But unfortunately, you know, as I've gotten older, it's like, these things are uncomfortable. Yeah. You know, yeah. So I just kind of look at him. Now. I don't wear him so much.

Unknown Speaker 13:07
I've always seen them as, like, I'm of the mindset that wear whatever you want, as long as it's what you genuinely want to wear. I mean, I know the whole thing about the male gaze and, and trying to appeal to, to men because of in equal power structures, and so on so forth. And I'm just not with it personally in terms of perpetuating that stuff. So for me, it's like, I look and see what a woman's wearing. And I'm like, Man, I hope they know how good they look. And I hope they're dressing for themselves. I don't want I don't want people to dress for anyone else but themselves. Right. That's the that's that's like actually happiness. And like, that's actually being honest about yourself is putting out there. How you see yourself and how you want to be seen. I think that's more empowering anything else?

Zandra Polard 13:57
Exactly. And not comparing yourself to other comparisons. The

Unknown Speaker 14:01
thief of joy? Oh, yes, yes. It is. Absolutely knowledge. Yeah,

Zandra Polard 14:07
absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, be careful for those who, you know, maybe compliment you a little bit too much. You know,

Unknown Speaker 14:14
what happens to the vibe if the vibe is off? You know, little red flag, right? Yeah.

Zandra Polard 14:19
Just like, Oh, why do you keep complimenting me? What's on your What are you

Unknown Speaker 14:23
trying to say that you're not saying? Exactly, yeah. What are you trying to get at? You know?

Zandra Polard 14:28
Yeah, and I'm learning distance is a powerful thing. Yeah. No,

Unknown Speaker 14:31
it's a it's an, like an extension of boundaries. Exactly. Yeah. And we

Zandra Polard 14:35
all need to have them. Yeah, definitely. Yes. So keep that in mind out there. And sorry, if we're kind of going back and forth, and around this body imaging, I wanted someone in the field to get more specific with you. So these are just things that have come up over the week. Right, right. You know, that I wanted to put out there and let people think about nice. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 14:57
very cool. Very cool. You were talking previously about people getting like it wasn't just Botox and not just fillers, but it was any kind of argumentation type of surgeries. Okay, because

Zandra Polard 15:08
they're doing a lot of the, you know, derriere.

Unknown Speaker 15:12
Yes. Yeah, the BBL is as they're called. Is that what it's called? Yeah. Brazilian Butt Lift? Oh, yes. I didn't know what the acronym was for a bit, but I looked into it. So, yeah,

Zandra Polard 15:22
well, you know, I'm not well endowed in that area. You know, I do some butt lifts, you know, lift my leg in the rear, you know, try and pump it up. It's

Unknown Speaker 15:31
all muscles anyway. That's right. That's right. But no, I, I that stuff comes up. And I think of the first thing I think of what actually when people talk about, like augmentation surgery or any, anything like that, my first thing is that depending on if you are, like, naturally endowed in certain ways, they can actually go to be a hinderance I remember, I went to school with someone who was starting to have back problems because of their breast size in like eighth grade. Yes, yeah. ridiculously early in terms of maturity. So by the time that just after high school, I'm pretty sure she got a reduction surgery because otherwise, like, her back was gonna get all kinds of messed.

Zandra Polard 16:17
Yeah, you know, I was driving and this lady's breasts were so big. Yeah, it caught my eye. And I just felt so bad for it. Because I was like, I know that's a woman's back is killing of

Unknown Speaker 16:30
right wing. I'm gonna be honest, when I noticed certain things about like, the way people are shaped or anything. My first concern if it's any kind of comp, like any kind of comment, other than like, oh, they look good, whatever they're wearing. It's always like, Man, I hope you're comfortable. I hope your backs Okay. posture is good. I hope you're doing stretches like, I'm genuinely out here like to myself, in my mind being like, I see you. And I'm just I'm empathizing with you. Right? I'm hoping you're okay. That's

Zandra Polard 16:59
because you know, you can relate with your friend.

Unknown Speaker 17:01
That's true to surgery. Yeah, it's just I don't know, it's just, it's easier to look at people and like, I find it I prefer to try to understand people and empathize with people before I make any actual judgments or conclusions.

Zandra Polard 17:16
We totally, totally are not, you know, using our moral compass on anyone or, you know, judging anyone. These are just things that have come up. In recent recent weeks, of course, as we were developing this particular show, of course, and I was taken aback at some of the stories, which I don't want to share. Because I prefer for the person chore, you know, who's supposed to give the reason. Yeah. But some of the things that she was sharing with me, it was just like, wow, you know, you really have to deal with a lot. And do you have a mental health professional to refer out? You know, before someone decides to get, you know, whatever it is that they're going to have done.

Unknown Speaker 18:02
Now, would that be kind of as a kind of like a well check before you make the big decision, or is it support after you get the procedure done? What do you I

Zandra Polard 18:12
would think both and I think also that it's more in depth when you're dealing with surgery is more like she does more like CoolSculpting and Botox, filler stuff, like smaller

Unknown Speaker 18:25
stuff. Yeah, that's the I don't know the right way to smile,

Zandra Polard 18:29
but they're not going under the knife. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, but still, you know, and even with just like, Well, I think it's just being accepted as like, you know, when you go to the beauty salon, and you get to hear highlighted or, you know, died or whatever. Yeah, yeah. So it's just the way things are the way people are doing things now. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 18:50
I think anything that like anything that makes anyone else feel good about themselves, and they see whatever helps them alleviate any sense of like, dysphoria or any kind of body image issues. I mean, I have friends who deal with like body dysmorphia in different ways. And I can sit there and tell them like, oh, no, you're you're beautiful. Like, you look great. You're you're you who wouldn't, who wouldn't love you for who you are, but Oh, Lord, but they do not believe you know, because that's, that's, that's the, that's the intersection of mental illness and body image and all that stuff. It it's better for that person to find what makes them truly feel like they are seeing themself whatever that means authentically for them than anything else. So like, I just tried to be supportive, because I can't understand I'm not I don't, I don't have their mind and I don't have their eyes. I'm not so what do

Zandra Polard 19:40
you think is best for you to do to just listen and not advice?

Unknown Speaker 19:45
I am always open to giving advice when it's warranted. I was I'm sure you're familiar. You know, when you're growing up everyone like every group of friends has like that therapist friend that was always looking out, you know, the mom or the dadly group that was always like, Hey, are you good checking in or someone kind of became the confidant for like, Man, I'm going through this problem in my relationship, or I don't know why this pattern of behaviors happening, or I'm having this problem at home, that kind of thing. Yeah. So in that regard, you know, my, my, my heart's always in that place of I am here to be supportive of my friends and my people. But I also know better than to interject myself when it's not needed or not asked for, right? Because not everyone is asking for that conversation all the time. It's, it's not the same exact thing. But I remember you and I had a conversation off air not long ago, where you felt that just because you could bring blackness into a conversation doesn't have to be the focus of every conversation. Yeah, you know, kind of similar to that. It's like we can always bring in that lens and that perspective, but is that what we're really trying to do? Is that even going to be helpful is just going to complicate whatever you're mulling over in your mind? I don't know. I tried to be sometimes

Zandra Polard 21:06
it is important to mention, you know, race sometimes, you know, Oh, yeah. But my the point that I was making, was that when someone is on the show, right, and they're of the same race, that people are not seeing us, you're hearing us. Yeah. So when things come up, it's like, wasn't really important to

Unknown Speaker 21:31
make that explicit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So same kind of thing is like some things don't have to be brought up just because it seems it could be like the popular thing to do or to jump on a conversation piece that's just been happening. You know, little by little, who knows? Yeah.

Zandra Polard 21:50
Sometimes if you lead to say, just go on and say there's

Unknown Speaker 21:54
that too. Yeah. There's always yeah, sometimes you'd have to go through with the flow like that. That's right.

Zandra Polard 21:59
Very true. And that's what we do. On it's where I am. Yes. So, what's going on this week? Wes, what do you what are your plans for today? It is Saturday, July 29. What you got going on,

Unknown Speaker 22:14
man? Um, I have game night with my friends tonight. Okay, so that is that looks like a group of us getting together at my friend jinxes house what up. And as sitting around, we're playing through different like very cinematic video games. Like they're multiplayer. They're very narrative heavy. And they usually like horror games scary games again. So we're gonna start this new, this new war game that came out recently called the quarry. I know very little about it. My friends know enough to kind of set the stage for us, but I'm gonna get scared, I'm sure.

Zandra Polard 22:52
Yeah, well, you know, games are a great way to interact with friends and family and to keep your spirits up, right. Sometimes we get a little sad. You know, I always say, play a game with your friends or your family. Yeah, yeah. So that's always a fun thing to do. For me, it is early in the morning and right after this. I'll be heading to the gym. Because I've been going every week and it has made a tremendous difference in how I feel my energy level. I was doing some yoga before just for relaxation and stretching. But I'm really getting into more of the cardio. Okay, yeah. And the weightlifting. So God feels good. Feels good. So whatever your plans out there, our for today. Just make sure to be centered with yourself and love on you all day. Yeah. So I want to thank you, Wes for jumping into the conversation about body imaging course. And I want to thank you all again for tuning in. I'm here every Saturday at 7:30am It's where I am. And if you missed any portion of this broadcast, you can find it on your favorite podcast. I'm on Apple, Spotify, Google and Amazon podcast platforms. Catch me anytime and we'll talk to you next week. Thank you bye bye

Unknown Speaker 24:44
till three in the morning we will get shorty with best to see the tune Nate on strong because she was flat so what could go wrong and I can take that up

Unknown Speaker 25:05
I woke up the next morning to some breakfast and a bowl of fruit some toasted some scrambled day she was born she was born them legs looking better than the poor Jamaica for you you may call you

Unknown Speaker 25:46
just can't get enough for you and the things you do I know what a been that much time I can't seem to get you out of my mind intelligence and feminine energy you make your mind because again happy passing me

Unknown Speaker 26:16
from the moment that I met you when I learned to name you've been on my mom on the north and swepson St Vincent you put me make private law changes you make

Unknown Speaker 26:36
a misspelling

Unknown Speaker 26:43
or you want a major

Unknown Speaker 26:50
with

Unknown Speaker 27:07
me you seen intelligent feminine energy

Unknown Speaker 27:41
not for you to get your intelligence lucky you

Unknown Speaker 28:02
can't get you?

Unknown Speaker 29:13
Just you and me

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Body Image: Choices and Perspectives
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