"Perfect bodies" and Eating disorders

If you don't know what is going on this is for you.

This post is going to be about: 

The media's unrealistic expectations of the "perfect body" and how it affects men and women today. 

The portrayal of the "perfect body" on social media : 

    All the way back from the 15th century when the simple forms of media were created such as magazines, books, newspapers, and pamphlets, the image portrayed has imprinted the idea of unrealistic body types. Today, companies use advertisements to continue portraying the stigma that not all bodies are beautiful, which is far from the truth. Companies still continue to portray the image of men with hyper-masculine characteristics and females with "perfect" bodies, this simultaneously creates the stigma that these certain body types are all that is plausible, creating the idea in young men and women that their body is "not right", that their body is "ugly", this portrayal creates men and women to starve themselves, or binge eat as a coping mechanism, creating eating disorders. 

Eating disorders : 

Hopkins statistic

The link above is the official John Hopkins Medicine website on "psychiatry and behavioral sciences: Eating disorders program". 

What is an eating disorder? - "Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, a form of self-starvation; bulimia nervosa, in which individuals engage in repetitive cycles of binge-eating alternating with self-induced vomiting or starvation"  

As stated on the website "the most common age of onset is between 12-25. Although much more common in females, 10 percent of cases detected are in males." This is stating that the average age range for an eating disorder is the ages between 12-25, 12-year-olds who are not even teenagers yet go through the expectations of how their body is supposed to be. What they are supposed to be eating, how they are supposed to act, what is "normal" and what is "abnormal", these young kids don't have the freedom to do what makes them happy without the idea that they will be made fun of, or be considered "different". 

Beauty standards : 

The beauty standards created by society, and by beauty industries have a negative effect on men and women, on their self-esteem, body image, and their overall perception of beauty. By these forms of portrayal men and women are constantly comparing themselves to the standards of beauty put out by the media, the influence on them is detrimental to their mental and physical health. 

These beauty standards make teenagers who should be loving their body and embracing it to their comfort are not, many wear hoodies and sweatpants to cover what they don't feel is beautiful, they double-check what they wear in case someone will make fun of them, or if it does not look like the models on the billboards, or magazines. They constrict themselves in a way no one should, and it is no one to blame but social media, and beauty industries. 

Media influencers who have talked about beauty standards : 

- Kate Winslet - spoke about photoshop and body manipulation by stating: "It goes against my morals, the way that my parents brought me up and what I consider to be natural beauty " 

- Ashley Benson (Pretty little liars actress) talking about the manipulated image of the cast to promote the show  - "Remember, you are ALL beautiful. Please don’t ever try and look like the people you see in magazines or posters because it’s fake. It only causes an unhealthy mind about how you see yourself. You are perfect the way you are" 

- Lili Reinhart (Riverdale actress) talks about body image and about self-confidence - "even I feel intimidated by the physique of my surrounding cast mates sometimes when I have to do bra/underwear scenes. I’ve felt very insecure due to the expectation that people have for women on TV, what they should look like.”

How serious of an issue body image is : 

The unrealistic views of body image are a very serious issue in the film industry and have very severe impacts on the self-confidence of many teenagers. For example, many shows that are supposed to have teenagers, are played by people in their 20-30s portraying a teenager. This causes teenagers to contemplate why they do not look like those on-screen. For instance, Lili Reinhart who plays Betty in the show "Riverdale" is a 23-year-old, but on-screen she plays a 16-year-old student in high school, this caused many girls to question their bodies, therefore giving the show a lot of backlash. 

The portrayal of teenagers but acted with adults creates unrealistic body stigmas, causing many to go through self-doubt and mental and physical health problems.  

Change :

Today, many different media platforms are changing their promoting strategies, they are beginning to portray natural beauty, and diversity, although their "ideal" body image will forever be present, the idea that industries are changing shows how society is putting in the right effort. But it will forever be important for teenagers especially to be comfortable with their body and love it because everyone is perfect in their own way.