The Issue Of Body Image In The 21st Century

Body image- an issue that’s bound to affect everyone at one point in their life, especially during their teenage years. Studies found that 27% of teens surveyed in today’s generation care more about their appearance than their physical health. This is a shocking fact to hear. That means that 1 in every 4 teens thinks this way and I hope you would agree that that number needs to go down. However, for the teens growing up in this 21′ century, that might prove to be difficult due to the way social media, society, and their upbringing influences them 24/7.

Whether you’re male or female, and feel the need to be muscular or skinny, the pressures with body image continues to be an issue for many young people today. But how can you not feel this pressure for so-called ‘perfection’? Just one look on any top social media platform and you’ll be bombarded with ads for better bodies and looks with nothing to shield against it. Does that sound like fun to you? Now, there’s nothing wrong with playing about with filters on a photo, but when it gets to the point where it looks completely different to the original that’s when problems start happening. Just under 10% of teens admitted they’ve experienced jealousy, negativity or insecurity while browsing through their feeds. There are so many ways to boost your pic and make it more ‘likable’ that (unfortunately) appearance seems to be the focus with lots of people taking hundreds of photos just so they can get the ‘perfect one’. Where teens were once just exposed to their surrounding peers, they can now easily access the opinions, behaviours, and ideas of thousands of people instantly. They are at the mercy of social media and something must change.

Today, most people get influenced by their friends, family and upbringing about how to look. If all your friends start dressing one way and tell you to do the same, a lot of people would probably feel pressured to go along with it. This can affect people in different ways as some might not feel comfortable changing so can result in them feeling stressed and anxious. It can also be a huge loss in confidence if someone you considered a friend comes up to you and tells you that you don’t look good and must change. However, it’s not just friends that can influence you. Our families can change us just as much. Lots of kids look up to their parents as role models, so if they see them going on diets, they will see this to be a normal thing and will want to copy them. A Harvard Medical School study found that mothers who over-emphasize concerns about their own weight are more likely to pass on that behaviour to their children. We may think that that children whose parents were overweight might have it easier when it comes to body image, because their parents would not make them feel like they need to be thin, but in fact, that isn’t true. Overweight parents might encourage their children to stay trim all for good reasons, but this can cause children to worry that they might let their parents down. Imagine if that was you and how big of a burden that would feel like to carry on your shoulders.

All around the world, people suffer from trying to impress other people and themselves with their body image, with many people opting to go extreme and get plastic surgery. With it becoming so popular, you can change the look of almost anything you want on your body. That ranging from something as simple as a lip filler, to getting ribs removed for a smaller waist. It is simply out of this world the lengths that humans will go to, to look good. It all starts with celebrities getting plastic surgery and then, because of the huge following they have, members of the public get the same things done to them. These surgeries cost thousands of pounds which could be put towards better causes but because of the whole idea of having to look perfect, people just keep getting more and more of them to keep up with their own needs to look good. Plastic surgery can increase your self-esteem if done for the right reasons. Many people choose to normalize prominent ears and hooked noses to feel more like themselves in their own skin.

In recent years, there has been a huge surge against negative body image with one reason being plus-size models. The modelling world is usually associated with skinny models only, but there is now a demand for plus-size models as well. More and more of these models have been making it into the front cover of world-famous fashion magazines such as ‘French Elle’ and ‘Vogue Italia’. In the past, the fashion industry convinced the public that thinner is better but now with plus-size models being featured more regularly, people are now able to accept their own body no matter what size. One of the most famous movements supporting women of all different sizes is Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign. The campaign was launched in 2004 and focused on encouraging women to embrace their bodies regardless of shape or size. Movements like this are needed to help women with body image issues. The modelling industry severely damages the way the world sees beauty, I think we would all agree on that.

Body image is a huge problem all around the world and if we don’t do something right now, it will be a problem for the rest of our lives. We need to stop fussing over how we look and just enjoy life. Children growing up in this century will be the most affected by body image. It’s not something that is just going to disappear. It’s something that we created so it’s up to us to demolish it and make the world a more positive place.