UNDERSTANDING THE SELF: THE PHYSICAL SELF

hello everyone welcome to our class this is ss031 understanding the self still this is sir your online facilitator your instructor here in ss031 and today we will be starting our discussion for our midterm on our first lecture which is on the physical itself but before we start with our lecture let me just ask if there are some of you who are able to watch the k drama entitled gangnam beauty now perhaps many of you are familiar with this k drama now uh gangnam beauty is actually a k drama which centers on the life of a

college student who went under cosmetic surgery to evade derision from her bullies yet her decision seems to backfire as her peers ridicule her artificial look you know what in uh society okay where there's always that pressure for you to look good and to seek a visually better version of yourself of course we always get so caught up with the ways we can make sure that we look beautiful and nice and sometimes we frown often on our natural looks our complexion or even our stature perhaps and in this story this is not an exemption however when

she went under the knife that's the moment that at least her decision backfired on her because her peers her friends thought that her artificial look does not really suit her well and this will be a part of our discussion for uh this chapter which is all about the physical self again welcome to ss031 this is understanding the self and today our discussion will be concentrating on the physical self in this lesson we will be able to first understand the biological concept of our physical selves also we'll try to analyze the impact of culture on body

image and self-esteem and hopefully at the end of this lesson we will be able to celebrate beauty and diversity now amy bloom perfectly stated this you are imperfect permanently and inevitably flawed and you are beautiful according to again to amy bloom you are imperfect that is a statement that is a declarative statement you are imperfect you are flawed and she described our flaws are as permanent and inevitable still despite of our imperfections despite of our permanence and inevitable flaws there's still a declaration that we are beautiful again according to in bloom you are imperfect permanently

and inevitably flawed and you are beautiful as i said a while ago there is always a pressure in our society to look good and to seek a visually better version of ourselves so we often get so caught up with the ways that we can make sure that we look beautiful and nice and presentable if not beautiful to them that sometimes we frown on our natural looks even perhaps for filipinos our dark complexion or even our short stature now the social pressure of looking perfect gave rise to the many beauty products and enhancement procedures being patronized

by a large portion of our population no matter how expensive they might be just to fit in to be accepted and to be beautiful now if you're going to look at your skin right now you will see here some skin care products that perhaps every girl must own however because again if some if not many women are quite vain on how they look definitely even men okay have their vanities as well okay so they have to take care of themselves as well okay so this social pressure looking perfect gave rise to these many products okay

that's the reason why um okay so they try to enhance their their features their physical features to be accepted because that's what so the society actually looks at now in a world where fader skin and a size zero for women are deemed attractive if not stunning we can only expect ourselves to follow and abide by the mantra beauty is power no matter how destructive it might be for us in a way perhaps many of us might not agree that beauty is power but in our society right now this is the reality if you are beautiful

then perhaps you might have an edge still okay say for example if you are going to apply for a job but that's the reality of our world today beauty is power but even though that's the reality sometimes it could be very destructive for us now on the next screen you will see here okay young before and after looks who tried to alter their physical looks now who would have thought that these people okay were actually them before okay so of course again as we try to study the physical self we suspend and we try to

avoid being judgmental of people what their decisions are at least but we have to go beyond the decisions of people and see from our society's perspective why people are trying to go under the knife to feel accepted and whatnot but even before we try to do that now let me go back to the to the k drama kangnam beauty just a trivia for you gangnam is actually the makati district of our country this is like the central business district in seoul when i was studying in in in my in my school back then during my

master's degree uh gangnam era is just like 10 minutes walk from my school so usually we go to madali from from gangnam area so somehow i i am very much familiar with gangnam now why is it that we look like ourselves but before that remember that our physical selves have become so dependent okay on the judgment of our appearance and not with the celebration of it and in this chapter we will look at the work of nature and nurture and how nature and nurture greatly influence the features of our physical selves particularly how we look

and how standards of beauty both local and global contexts have affected our self-acceptance because definitely there is an influence of the society's standards of beauty on how we try to accept ourselves because sometimes our self-acceptance is dependent on how the solution accepts us we will also look into the different cultural standards of beauty and how it has affected our self-concept our self-esteem our body image and realize that beauty hopefully we will realize that beauty in all shapes and sizes is meant to be celebrated and so as we proceed we'll try to discuss why do we

look like our subs have you ever faced the mirror and ask yourself why do i look like me now science explains that our parents are very much instrumental okay that our parents are very much instrumental in the way that we look at the moment gregor mendel first figured out how genes are passed from parents to offspring in plants including humans in his experiments on pea plants it showed that genes are passed intact from generation to generation and that traits are not blended now mendel's discovery was that it is through the genes okay it is through

the genes that traits were passed from parent to offspring through several generations okay now genetics definitely has a hand in our physical appearance our biology dictates that our looks are a result of the genes transferred to us by our parents from our skin tone hair color to our height our physical features are an evidence that we are our parents children when heredity is actually our work we find ourselves being the mirrors of our parents which was the result of their dnas at work in us and for some eating like carbon copies of them now if

you're familiar with the dna if you uh in in your uh senior high school perhaps you realize that the dna is the deoxyribonucleic acid [Music] hollywood actress and actress now you have here kim kardashian uh kris jenner right and then you have um this one see reese witherspoon and this one i'm not sure if you're familiar with this um hollywood actor actress this is demi moore okay am the male version of my mother so this is the reason why we look why we look it's because of the genes of our parents which are which is

transferred to us through the work of the dna or the deoxyribonucleic acid now let's look at the cultural standards of beauty now defining beauty is actually contextual defining beauty is contextual as culture decides the norms of the society its concept of what is beautiful is similarly invoked from a cultural perspective as suffice it to say that describing such should be problematic since it is con contextual okay to say the least now different cultures have different standards of beauty now during the 19th century in the african country in an african country it was recorded that some

men and women were set aside in a special place for fattening purposes in addition they were covered in large amounts of tapa bark cloth which after the ritual is over reveals a lighter skin for those who were selected now the goal of these uh fattening rooms okay of this ritual is to enhance the beauty of these women not only by feeding them but by making sure that they get a lighter skin afterwards now fattening rooms are used less these days but they are still relevant among particularly well of family this was also recorded in nigeria

also an african country during the ancient times when being fat was viewed as a sign of fertility of prosperity and of beauty now these examples impeccably depict how beauty is explained distinctly in different societies now in fattening rooms in some african cultures this is where big is beautiful okay so young standards now lakoff and cher um said that beauty in their book uh face value the politics of beauty lakoff and share explained that beauty was not just a product of wealth but it is a commodity in and of itself when we say commodity right so

when you talk about beauty it is not just a product of wealth but this is perhaps and this has become somehow a commodity in and of itself in other words it was no longer a matter of looking to wealth to find beauty but of looking to beauty to find status now beauty could give the illusion of wealth that is true right so sometimes when you talk about the concept of beauty in in a uh in our society where so you talk about the standards of yuri in fact when you talk about beauty it's always looking

to beauty to find okay so that is uh how standards of beauty actually um has become uh terrible at least for many societies okay now do you agree with lakov and shea's definition of beauty well perhaps no matter how we disagree when we talk about the reality of what beauty is in our society at the moment this is a perfect description of what beauty is all about excuse me now in the philippines the construction of local standards of beauty can be traced from our colonial influences skin color signifies the value of the people in society

lighter skinned individuals are considered higher in terms of social status and therefore in the social brand compared to those with brown or dark skin true our concept okay of physical selves as filipinos is largely associated with our skin color historically our people were colonized by fair skinned races right so you have the spaniards you have the americans and the japanese so um so we already felt like they were people who were higher than us they are they were our conquerors it's the same that they conquered as we thought that they were superior they were better

than us okay dry skin people and it has been the problem ever since historically and that is still rampant until now the colonization of our country by these white-skinned people okay the americans the the spaniards the japanese lasted for more than three centuries three centuries meaning more than what 300 years we were forced to believe that they were the more superior people that they were more civilized and even how they look were deemed as standards of beauty but this is a very eurocentric perspective which has influenced our concept of attractiveness even today free as we

are claiming we are still our mindset is very much a slave of a white culture now their whiteness has become a goal for most filipinos right and all that it's because our concept of beauty is very much eurocentric it's very much americanized right their whiteness has become our the goal for most filipinos that even our television and movie personalities here mirror their looks right um okay so people will not take you seriously as an actor or as an actress if your color is not in the standard okay now the filipino obsession with beauty okay translates

okay not only with women but also with men because again when you talk about the vanity of people when you talk about standards of beauty of christ it's not just solely concentrated on women but we have to look also at the obsession of men okay with beauty and today and here we will look at the case of xander ford previously known as the marlow arizala a former member of hash five a teen boyband which became an online sensation a couple of years ago not because of their attractiveness but because of the disgust and animosity they

receive because of their ugly faces and for many they thought big not only because of their ugly faces but also because of their ugly attitude now xander's decision to alter his physical appearance was not without the pressure of the society to look good if not better now he would have he he was thinking perhaps that people would be taking him seriously he was not spared from bullying since he became an internet sensation because by our standards by our standards of our beauty he simply is unattractive okay now his decision to go under the knife was

because of the lucas culture sir his decision to go under the knife was because of a lucas culture which dictates that happiness is only afforded to good looking as our society puts premium to eurocentric standards of beauty we victimize our own people for looking otherwise sabido we have become brown skinned people with white minds right but in reality we are not white people espanol but then again we have to trace back history and how our colonization era has deeply affected and impacted how we not only look at our history but how we look at our

physical selves in comparison to the looks the physical looks of our colonizers now set off words uh sandra ford's um surgery okay was sponsored by a cosmetic surgery clinic unlike many who shell out thousands about millions just to look physically appealing okay this was his doctor okay well perhaps we can say that gender force cosmetics called a success however that not all surgeries are being safe okay now nizandra nismo okay see dr uh okay sandra ford's plastic surgeon conducted three procedures on business women shiro saturnino march of 2018 if i'm not mistaken however reports from

the philippine national crime laboratory says that mr tornino died of fat embolism a condition where there was fat in the blood vessels which entered into the lungs of the big tips okay making it hard for her to breathe and that's the reason why under the night truth is women have been evaluated based on their appearance more than men and this is the reality they have been valued and devalued based on how they look it's for this reason that many women fall prey to even unnecessary cosmetic surgeries due to the desire of wanting to look good

if not perfect okay now let's look at how much okay you own again cost now make over me sander first so on your screen right now i got this from uh pep but the photo is actually courtesy of star image artist management this is the uh management of uh you can handle duncan sander for before i'm not sure right now okay so you will see here how much it cost okay so eyebrow okay for the eyebrow clowning that's worth around sixteen to thirty five thousand and then anti-wrinkle parabola wrinkles forehead that's seven thousand young eyelash

extension that's three thousand eight hundred rhinoplasty okay that's worth ninety five thousand and then you have lipton procedure there's some lipsticks in a major pale so lipton procedure is worth around fifteen to thirty five thousand pesos but indeed and then you have the mandibular angle augmentation uh for around 60 to 70 000. it was estimated okay that the cost of the makeover was around uh 465 800. this is actually still quite cheap i know because i was expecting that but then again if there are some people who are going under the night perhaps [Music] okay

but but then again we have to understand people that health companies are for most okay to be considered before going through this kinds of surgeries however there are those who still feel that there is always a need for them to alter whichever part of their body because they feel that they do not look beautiful even if you tell them that they already are this perspective seems to be the case not only for a lot of millennials but for those who are um body dysmorphic disorder or b d d now when we talk about body dysmorphic

disorder a definition then some ice cream at the magnet and this is defined as a severe form of body image disturbance characterized by an excessive concern or preoccupation with one's appearance usually now those who are suffering from body dysmorphic disorder are so obsessed okay about their appearance okay thus they think about their flaws real or not incessantly and uncontrollably now we have to understand that sometimes the flaws that we think about ourselves are real but some of these flaws are actually not real okay so those who are suffering from bdd think about their flaws whether

they see it physically or perhaps in the islam in america because they are so obsessed about their appearance okay they cannot control thinking about their flaws incessantly [Music] okay now those who are diagnosed with this disorder are very much preoccupied okay by a perceived physical flaw that is either absent or not which are so trivial that only the one suffering from it sees it as a problem being so much distressed about it the daily routines are affected alibaba perhaps those suffering from this think of their flaws even though other people don't really think about it

anymore but they can't control it okay okay they think about their flaws whether they're real or not incessantly and uncontrollably now those who are suffering from this disorder are so self-anxious that they see cosmetic surgeries to finally solve their body issues now dr eric yep the surgeon of ford okay when asked about this he explained that uh the reason why millennials are so obsessed with plastic surgery is because they want to be more pleasing to be more beautiful they consider having a beautiful face and body is always an edge in most aspects of life especially

in getting into their chosen career okay now i have a question for all of you guys what do you think is the most popular cosmetic plastic surgery uh cosmetic procedure in the philippines okay i know how popular in the cosmetic procedures uh filipinas okay in the last couple of years last couple of years this one i know plasti okay or no okay so my kitten example before and after picture that uh tv and movie actress here in the philippines kimchi so you see the before and after look okay so it don't picture nato i got

this from pep dot ph just as well okay okay now the quest okay the quest for physical perspective has brought us to an ordeal that will not end unless we get to the bottom of the problem our society remember has not only placed so much importance on looking beautiful but also has done a great job in commercializing beauty even the americans are also in trouble for wanting to be physically appealing okay perhaps at one point in our lives we have implicitly or explicitly criticized or even ridiculed for how we look our standards have become so

unbearable that our society mocks us for looking imperfect and these has caused many of us to lose confidence in ourselves and break that one last strand of self-esteem that we do have when women in particular get called out say for example for being heavy if not obese they are not cold as such by people to remind them that healthy for their own good but they were called out as fat as healthy as obese not to be healthy but most people do that just to vilify their looks and to magnify their imperfections these in turn results

to not only having a strong desire for the bullied to get thin but with it also comes that fear of gaining weight thus restricting themselves from food intake now here's a picture of one of my uh favorite um singers of all time i'm not sure if you're familiar with karen carpenter this was her picture back in 1977 perhaps your your grandparents or your parents are so familiar with her um was made into a movie before and i remember when i was very very very young i was able to watch her live story on our night

ok top of the world bars and also close to you mr postman all right uh why do birds suddenly appear but then again um her um her popularity was cut short because i'm doing career i know when i um read her biography actually concerned about her weight loss okay during her catastrophe cries to fame okay but then again because of anorexia bulimia it has become a mental disorder in a way and later on i will be discussing that but before we first um define what and russia is all about now anorexia is defined as a

serious mental illness when we talk about anorexia it's not just a health issue it's actually a mental illness okay so this is where people are of low weight okay due to limiting their intake okay due to limiting their energy intake we have to understand that anorexia again is not just a health problem but it is considered as a serious mental illness it can affect anyone of any age of any gender whether you're a man or a woman or any background as well as restricting the amount of food eating they may do lots of exercises to

get rid of food eaten some people with anorexia may experience cycles of binging when i was a student i usually binge uh binge eat um after and before exams okay but usually after an exam whether i do well or not i eat a lot okay on your screen right now you will see here okay uh the two types of an erection the first one is another and the other one is um almost anorexia these are not the two types but let's look at this one okay almost anorexis even though you are not anorexic yet okay

it's too serious to be ignored now the prevalence okay of anorexia one in 200 people are anorexic okay however those who are almost anorexic okay one in 20 people are almost anorexic what is the food restriction between anorexia people and those who are almost anorexic anorexic people have severe restrictions in eating perhaps they will not eat for a week or two okay so normal anorexic for food uh don't smell almost anorexic frequent restrictions when we say frequent restrictions perhaps they will not eat for a day okay okay or two days a week okay now for

binge eating those who are anorexic they have severe binge eating sometimes when they binge perhaps refrigerator okay forever for those who are almost anorexic they have mild binge eating okay purging when we talk about purging okay there's frequent purging for anorexia okay those who are almost anorexic infrequent preaching dinner that's the reason why we cannot ignore those who are almost anorexic because purging is still purging infrequent preaching is still purging okay those who are anorexic have a chronic okay negative body image they don't really like their body that's the reason why okay they restrict themselves

from uh food okay however those who have are almost anorexic they have a negative body image now the recommended action both for anorexic and almost anorexic are the same to seek professional evaluation even though a person is anorexic or almost antarctic okay the recommended action okay are one in the same for both okay and that is to seek professional evaluation okay now again we have to consider that it's not only anorexia that's the problem of many people with regards to our uh physical selves we took the concept also a body shaming okay this is not

only suffering uh not the only suffering of those who've been criticized for their weight now body shaming which is criticizing yourself or others because of some aspect of physical appearance has resulted in the loss of confidence of those who have been thin shamed or fat shaped let me just highlight the definition of body shaming here now body shaming is what criticizing yourself or others so perhaps and this is the reality as as part of the definition here you can actually body shame yourself right it's looks that's actually body shaming you try to criticize yourself but

ashaming does not only happen when you criticize other people but body shaming happens also to yourself when you criticize yourself that's the reason why as defined body shaming is criticizing yourself or others because of what because of some aspect of physical appearance hindi nam and perhaps totally perhaps and this has resulted in the loss of confidence of those who have been fin shamed or fetching okay and we also have the concept of body image disturbance rbd now body image disturbance or baid is an important aspect of several pathologies in psychology particularly eating disorders there are

two components of body image disturbance first one is the perceptual component and when you talk about the perceptual component this refers to how we accurately perceive our body size also known as the b uh body size estimation okay the attitudinal component which refers to how we think and feel about the size and or shape of their body okay jung perception and then is the accurate perception of our bodies i say for example you know that you're five seven so that is your perceptual component but your attitudinal component is how do you think or what do

you think about that height of yours say for example eco i5 one the perceptual component is that you are five one but the attitudinal component is that how do you feel about being five feet and one inch only right so these are the two components of um body image okay disturbance so you have the perceptual component okay and the attitude component which if not correctly processed will result to body dissatisfaction now the question is have you ever been body shamed and how did it make you feel and how did you handle it okay so okay

well when you talk about body shaming i i feel like perhaps uh at one point in our lives okay explicitly or implicitly again we have been body shamed okay if not by other people by ourselves because of how we look and how we feel about the look that we have now stais and uh wydenton found out that body dissatisfaction is also linked with mental these orders including depression and anxiety among adolescents now on your skin right now you will see here the difference between uh when do you know that you are depressed and when do

you know that you are anxious i got this from anxiety.org healthcare brands um so let's see here those who are frustrated frustrated sad you're feeling worthless you are irritable perhaps there's a loss of interest in normal activities thoughts of suicide or death you feel tired all the time and uh there's a disturbance in the sleeper appetite if merong ilandito um there is a probability that that person is actually depressed when you are frustrated sad you feel worthless you are irritable you have lost interest in normal activities like eating even taking a shower or whatnot sometimes

um you entertain the thoughts of taking your own life okay uh you feel tired wait by the way people please do not do that okay um life is too beautiful too to just be taken away from you okay so and then you feel tired and you do not want to eat anymore um that's actually those are actually symptoms of being depressed okay how about being anxious okay you would like to tremble these are signs of being anxious uh increase breathing rate okay okay feeling nervous are powerless having a sense of impending gender uh danger or

having uh panic attacks okay so that's anxiety okay and then you have high heart rate and then you are sweating so ibapoying depression but in young actual so nothing okay your own link between depression and anxiety but if you are depressed and anxiety and anxious at the same time the present anxious at the same time okay those who are both the present actions are restless okay they have trouble thinking concentrating or making decisions okay they worry excessively and let me say that most of our worries are not true okay okay so uh worry not too

much because again most of our worries are not true okay also unexplained physical complaints such as headaches or stomach aches okay and young irritable okay agitation uh agitated okay i think i know i'll give you an example of uh doing the present anxious i remember when uh my sister uh and then they got married here i think that was around 2012 right uh february what that was december 2011 sorry december of 2011. and then january um and after a couple of weeks we rushed her to the hospital because um she was complaining about stomach aches

and whatnot and then we rushed her to the hospital uh the national doctor the doctor found nothing okay imagine the anxiety perhaps and the depression that my sister was experiencing at that time because she only got married and then suddenly they they were separated okay after a couple of weeks okay so possibly making manifestations okay uh stomach experience so that's just a sign of um depression and um anxiety okay now um the advent also of social media uh put pressure on us to look even better on instagram okay and we know and the the uh

instagram as the most popular uh photo sharing okay app uh in the world okay on instagram we post our most physically appealing self and more often than not we use filter applications or we can hide our imperfections creating and recreating ourselves that our self that is better approved by our online friends and sometimes when you post pictures of yourself and of yourselves we're and then you try to post another one then you feel like so i have to be like this all the time okay so that has become a problem okay for um many okay

um today's youngsters are sadly happy victims of um of such since we live at a time when our self approval depends on the likes the shares and comments on our social media okay your your physical features and whatnot now when our filtered pictures when our filter photos look better than the unfiltered ones and the virtual world agrees we tend to keep everything that way there is that possibility however that the more we approve of our filtered us of our filtered selves the more that we are disregarding our real unfiltered physical selves you have to understand

also that that everything that we see in social media is true okay according to study that ninety percent of what you see on instagram is not even real okay so what do we do we have to celebrate beauty and diversity cultural concepts of beauty should be celebrated however we have to realize that practices okay that enhance attractiveness but are severely harmful to our health should be stopped okay in um in her book beauty and misogyny harmful culture practices in the west uh sheila jefferies explained that it is not enough to know that there are a

lot of beauty enhancement practices okay that are detrimental to women's health because for her um women should stand against the cultural requirement on what they should do with their bodies okay but then again it's very difficult also to do that in a society that upholds perfection of looks and that a society that opposes physical features to be giving you the status and the the edge in life that you need to be successful at least okay thus for her a celebration of beauty and diversity is required as she calls it there has to be a culture

of resistance this is a culture that veers away from the dictates that of what women in society should look like to be called beautiful okay we are challenged at this time to speak up against body shaming you have to understand that particularly that we are living in an image driven virtual society embracing our physical selves entails affirming each other regardless of our skin color regardless of our stature and regardless of our body mass index we are supposed to celebrate the authentic us devoid of the filters of the virtual world where we do not need to

hide our physical flaws and to resist the demands of a deprecating image driven society in a society that worships perfection embracing our physical selves is not going to be easy embracing our physical selves is not going to be easy let me remember let me highlight that embracing our physical selves is not going to be easy in a society that worships physical perfection however being positive about how we look can definitely work miracles okay in the book of psalms okay here in your screen right now okay in the book of psalms 139 verse 14 it says

you are fearfully and wonderfully made okay it says here that we are deemed as the masterpiece of the creator of the universe carefully precisely and worthily created now this idea also has been espoused in sacred text of other religious beliefs okay now the significance of self-acceptance is necessary in embracing our physical self so we have to be reminded that our health is foremost in all these remember that body size shape skin color and stature are never correct indicators of a healthy life there is nothing more important than to learn to accept and embrace who we

are with all its beauty with all its flaws and imperfections because this is the only way that we will be able to live in peace and at peace with our physical selves again it would be impossible to live a contented life if we are not happy with our physical selves we need to be reminded that our looks again are a testament that we are a byproduct of our parents love for each other okay this is something that every time that we look in the mirror we need to remind ourselves that we are full of our

parents love care and acceptance nonetheless as we embrace our looks we need to help others affirm their distinct beauty inclusive of its flaws inclusive of its scars and of all of its imperfections we need to be a part of a culture of resistance in a society that dictates beauty in physical perfection as amy bloom again puts it and something for us to wonder on and as we end this lecture please read this with me you are imperfect permanently and inevitably flawed and you are beautiful again you are imperfect permanently and inevitably flawed and you are

beautiful and that wraps up our discussion on the physical self this is still ss031 understanding the self and again this is sir e your class instructor your online facilitator and again thank you very much for joining me today again this is sir e now signing off