
I had never realized how deep her insecurities were until she opened up to me about her issues. As a way of justifying why she has not had a boyfriend she keeps mentioning that she isn’t pretty or skinny.

She keeps mentioning that one of her sisters never had a boyfriend until she was in her late twenties, and that she hopes that will not happen to her. Robin on the other hand has never had a boyfriend, which is a huge concern for her. Sarah is in a sorority and has men lined up at her door waiting to date her. Her roommate, Sarah, on the other hand is naturally very pretty, which I believe makes Robin more self-conscious about her figure. Despite all of this, Robin is very insecure about her image. Her body is toned from all of her workouts and the sports that she has been involved in. Robin isn’t a skinny girl, but she is not what I would consider fat. In the beginning of the year she also tried the crew team. She goes to swim practice every morning at five and she has water polo at seven at night. She would constantly say things such as “I’m not pretty” and “I’ve always had weight issues.” It would be hard to suspect Robin of having weight issues, especially since she is very athletic. I have another friend, Robin who I met this year in college who struggles with weight issues. Nicole reached her goal in safe manners she lost weight over a period of time and joined an organization that helped her get there in a safe way through exercise and diet. She gives me hope that people can reach their goals with perseverance. When I think about her accomplishment, I feel a strong sense of pride for her. In other posts she mentioned being ecstatic about finding clothes that fit her in the mall. I looked older photos of her and compared them to new photos of her and she genuinely looked much happier in her more recent photos. After a few months she put a post on Facebook saying, “I lost 140 pounds.” I felt really proud of her.

It was delicious and the food is very low in calories.” I was surprised at how fast she was losing weight but I found out later that she had joined WeightWatchers and that she started exercising in a regular schedule. I thought to myself “Huh, is she thinner or am I imagining everything?” My suspicions were confirmed when I started to see Facebook posts from her claiming that she lost forty pounds, or other posts that said something along the lines of “I had crab tonight at Red Lobster. I doubted whether I was seeing things correctly. She would post pictures of herself in different outfits and she appeared noticeably thinner. After she graduated from high school I didn’t see her often, but I started to notice on her Facebook page that she was losing weight. She knew that she was severely overweight, and she wasn’t looking at a skewed image of herself. Nicole never fell victim to the fun house mirrors. I loved that she was funny, smart, and sweet. She was the biggest girl at our high school, but none of that bothered me. She was also a year older than me, but we still managed to become friends. She was in my Advanced Placement Art History class in high school. I have a friend named Nicole who weighed over three hundred pounds. I believe that society has placed an unnecessary pressure on women to fit a certain body image, however this issue needs to be resolved due the physical and emotional damage that individuals are encountering because of this pressure. The physical form that most women desire is hardly obtainable, however most women still strive to fit a variation of that image. Many people forget that in order for actresses and models to achieve their physical frame they need to workout consistently and monitor their food intake everyday. Rarely in any film is the actress overweight. The media has placed emphasis on women to look thin through actresses on television and runway models. People develop self-image insecurities because society has decided that that women need to fit a certain form that few women can obtain. Many individuals form eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, and when they see themselves in the mirror, they stare at an individual that is larger in this other dimension than in reality. These mirrors are symbolic and display a reality that many people encounter in their daily lives. Many fun house mirrors make one’s width wider in the mirror than reality.

The fun house mirrors warp the reality of a person’s physical image to different forms. Moments after one enters the fun house, one comes across their insecurities falsely reflected in front of them. Visiting the circus is for the most part an enjoyable experience, however there is one aspect of the circus that is quite terrifying.
