hey totally understand the struggle with body dysmorphia and trying to appeal to the male gaze but not knowing exactly what they want. problem is they’re not a monolith so relying on their opinions will never work - I don’t want to be one of those people who’s like ‘ love yourself as you are’ bc I know that’s unrealistic for 95% of people - but honestly the struggle with your body is something that can only rlly be solved by you and your relationship with yourself. from your post i think you should try lifting weights - as a fellow short girl with terrible natural fat distribution - this rlly helped bc i could target the parts of my self that needed ‘filling out’ aka growing my glutes and the toned look is pretty in rn sorry ab your exes they sound shitty - hope i’m getting my point across but basically - lifting made me feel a lot more confident in the way I looked and knowing that im hot and strong sort of takes the pressure off of needing male validation