Whose Standards Are These?

The Price We Pay From A System That Extracts Our Insecurities

This article accompanies a mini-podcast series on The Stina Life Podcast and guide on stinameiers.com called: Reclaim Your Field: How To Dismantle From The Patriarchal Systems Energetically and Practically.

When you look in the mirror - whose standards are you using?

When you assess what you see, the standards you’re applying came from somewhere. They were designed by someone, refined by an industry, distributed through media, and repeated until they felt like neutral truth.

They are not neutral. They never were.

The Mechanism

The beauty and wellness industry runs on a single mechanism: create a sense of insufficiency, then sell the solution. This is not an accident or a side effect. It is the architecture of the entire enterprise. The goal is not to help you trust your body. The goal is to generate a recurring relationship with the feeling that your body requires improvement - and that the improvement is available for purchase.

What if we reframe how we interact with these standards by asking ourselves this one question: Does this help me trust my body, or does it generate doubt about it?

The answer tells you what the message is actually doing and what it wants from you.

The Deeper Mechanism

In a patriarchal society there are a few mechanisms that are used over-and-over again to keep the systems in control: extracting our time, attention and resources - and most importantly, keeping us in a state of fear.

The more self-loathing we have about ourselves, the easier it is to control us. When we look outside of ourselves for a “solution” to a “perceived problem” we have, the more control these systems have over us.

What can we do to shift the narrative?

One simple thing - look at what you are purchasing. Is there a beauty of health standard that you’ve been carrying that isn’t actually yours?

For example, I’m in the age range that perimenopause and menopause symptoms should be dominating my life. After all, everywhere I turn, I’m hearing about how I need to eat more protein, lift heavier weights, take a bunch of supplements, walk around in a weighted vest.

Do I have any menopause symptoms? No.
Is this something I really should be doing for my own body? Some things, yes.
Should I wrap my entire schedule and focus around it? Absolutely not.

How did I come to this conclusion? Because I asked my body. I muscle tested myself to ensure that what I need is actually aligned with what my body needs.

I didn’t go outside of myself looking for the answers - I went within. And that’s what personal powers and sovereignty looks like in the face of the patriarchy.

This is one thread in a larger conversation — the Reclaim Your Field mini-series on The Stina Life podcast goes deeper. The free guide is at stinameiers.com.

Listen to the Podcast.
Get the companion guide on stinameiers.com.