Recently, top fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld mocked the German women’s magazine, “Brigitte,” for deciding to begin using normal-sized women in its photoshoots: “These are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television,” Lagerfeld said. “No one wants to see round women.” Before this, fashion house Ralph Lauren had to apologize for doctoring an ad to make an already skinny model look even more superhumanly thin.

This fixation with an idealized body image is destructive for men and women, particularly so for the young and impressionable. Young people are encouraged through various means — the media, the expectations of others, societal norms, sports and dance teams — to look a certain way. Sometimes, they are disciplined or scorned for not meeting some idealized weight or build. The flawless complexion, size 0, hourglass figure ideal for women needs to become a thing of the past as does that of ripped abs, thick, wavy hair and tanned skin for men.

The human body is a beautiful creation. We wear it in many shapes, sizes and colors. The value of a person is not determined by the appearance of their person. Character is not dependent upon weight, height or muscle tone any more than eye color determines intelligence. Our bodies are valuable simply because we are in them.

People are not built the same and can’t look the same — they’re not supposed to. But we act as though they should. We criticize our appearance to one other. We hear disparaging remarks about people based on their weight. It is inappropriate to comment on the appearance of others.

It is even more tasteless to extend that observation to reflect upon a person’s character, personality or worth. In fact, doing so is more of a negative reflection on the speaker than on the person being critiqued.

There is hope for a shift in thinking: Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” features women of different shapes and sizes; in 2006, Madrid fashion officials set a minimum body mass index (BMI) of 18 for catwalk models; the Council of Fashion Designers of America issued guidelines against overly thin models two years ago.

These actions have merit because these same companies are behind innumerable, highly-visible advertisements, movies, promotions and other media that set the standard for society in music, fashion and even physical appearance.

But more needs to be done. We have a personal responsibility to ourselves, as well. We need to change our perceptions of what is healthy and what is not merely acceptable, but beautiful.

Today, people seem to think that the lower their body fat percentage, the healthier they are. Men and women forget they need a certain amount of body fat to be healthy.

I know many healthy women who keep obsessive track of their caloric and fat intake, critique themselves in the mirror, loathingly talk about their appearance and exercise with the express purpose of losing weight. Some men fanatically lift weights and down supplements. We all want to be strong and friendly, good-looking and independent, intelligent and appealing.

Society’s ideal body image seems to promise all this and more.

But that ideal is an impossible standard, and it is illogical. Women can have curves, as long as they’re in the right place (think tops of the legs or below the neck). Men can have thick, wavy hair, as long as it stays on the top of their heads.

Facing the task of defining oneself within culture’s conflicting attitudes toward body image is monumental. There are options: You can simply shut down; you can base your identity on the small plane of your weight and shape. You can try to control something — altering what you are to try to fit in with society’s demands.

Or you can understand that these perceptions come from our societal emphasis on body image. Accept who you are and what you look like. Be less afraid to be in the weight range you are in.

Be less afraid to be the shape you are. Remind yourself that healthy bodies and happy people come in all shapes, sizes and builds, and that no one body shape or size is a healthy one or the right one for everybody.

We need to develop different ways to talk about ourselves. Somehow, society has never given the message that our bodies are valuable simply because we are in them. We need to concentrate on the beauty God has given each of us.

Heather Wrigley is the Issues & Ideas editor for The Daily Universe.