Behind The Screen

Imagine, your best friend, your sister, or even your teenage child, is mindlessly scrolling through Instagram or Facebook whenever they get a few seconds of downtime, and is bombarded with unrealistic beauty standards in the form of photoshopped celebrities or stick thin fashion models filling up their feeds, leading them to feel discomforted and deflated, because of the psychological inadequacy created by these so called "standards".

From frequently reading glamour magazines, to simply viewing a barbie doll, body image issues have worsened for 1 in 3 girls, according to The Wall Street Journal. It is as though the majority are affected by social media which is becoming more readily available. The dangers of promoting these unrealistic ideals about what men and women's bodies should look like are increasing rapidly. A Facebook study of teens in the UK and US shows that 40% of Instagram users, who said that they feel "unattractive", claimed that the feeling began while using the app. This allows me to think that outcomes such as: stress, low self-esteem and repetitive negative thoughts, can have detrimental effects on your mental health. For example: body dysmorphia, a condition in which you can't stop thinking about one or more perceived flaws or defects in your appearance, that makes you feel so ashamed and anxious that you may avoid many social situations. With 4 in 10 teenagers saying that images on social media have made them worry about their body image, is this becoming the new normal?

My mother, a wholesome woman from the 70s, admits that "there was an aspect of acceptance, freedom and normality when I was growing up, without needing to scroll, without needing to constantly compare myself to others in order to fit in. It was a decade where anything goes, and where the only trend was which poster you had on your bedroom wall." But now, 40 years later, we can't seem to resist the temptation of reaching out to the monster sitting in the palm of our hands, or in the pockets of our jeans, that seems to be gradually eating away at our well-being. Most importantly, the main victims, teenagers, perhaps because of naivety and innocence, and that we are the target audience of platforms such as Tiktok and Instagram, it is almost as though we are the ones feeding this monster with likes and views, as we aspire to be these photoshopped celebrities or stick thin fashion models.

While some people may say posting selfies can enhance your mood, as some see it as a visualisation of the best perspective of themself, unfortunately, the consequence of this is that people will go to great lengths to try and achieve a seemingly absurd ideal by engaging in harmful weight control behaviours. For instance: extreme dieting or taking laxatives or steroids. So let's turn our attention to what you and others can do if you are suffering in the way you physically see yourself: unfollow or unlike pages that may trigger or encourage comparison making, to instead make a conscious effort to follow body positivity pages where you are involved in a forum where all body shapes and sizes are respected.

But did Covid and the lockdown procedure play a huge part in body image issues? Well according to a survey of 8,000 people conducted by the UK's Parliament's Women and Equalities Committee, 58% of people aged under 18 said that the lockdown restrictions made them feel "worse" or "much worse" about their appearance, because of social media comments, anti-obesity campaigns, but it is also critical that we recognise those feeling worse by having to see themself on a video call for school or an extracurricular activity, for the reason that this may have to become a popular way of teaching if a virus strikes again. In addition, Labour Party MP Alex Jones said that he noticed an article from a local media outlet about a Welsh woman who had caught the virus, got put on a ventilator, fortunately pulled through, but lost 4 stone in weight while in hospital. He said that the comments underneath that article, majority women, were dreadfully depressing, as this media monster strikes again: people were saying that they now need to catch Covid in order to lose weight, which I found shocking. Furthermore, due to more adverts being viewed promoting products that have the ability to change your appearance such as weight loss products, because of people spending more time in their homes consuming the media, this increases pressure to focus on weight loss and appearance improvements, which then helps towards negative feelings of inadequacy.

Let me ask you this, has this issue stretched as far as Disney princesses? The most upsetting issue surrounding the depiction of women and their physical appearance is the unrealistic portrayal of body image within fairy tales. Every princess seems to have an unnaturally small waist, large breasts, fair skin, exaggerated eyes and fluttering eyelashes. Buzzfeed wrote an article in which members of the team dressed up in costume as a Disney Princess and had their bodies digitally altered to fit the frame that is represented in the animations. They clearly revealed the unrealistic, and harmful, alterations that Walt Disney has created. Similarly, another website, Above Average, found that in 6 out of the 11 Disney Princesses, their eyes were larger than their waists.This dramatically contrasts to the antagonists in these Disney films. For example: in The Little Mermaid, Ursula is a bigger, darker skinned woman with short hair whilst exemplifying negative personality traits. This leads girls to want to associate with the beautiful princesses. Perhaps this gets across that if you do own features assigned to the villains of these films, you are considered evil and are disrespected which adds to feelings of offence and degradation even at a young age.

So let's take action. A positive or healthy body image is defined as the feeling of satisfaction and happiness with your body as well as being comfortable with and accepting the way you look. For me, I certainly feel as though being exposed to unrealistic ideals when associating with peers and celebrities online manipulates those bad behaviours, even if we aren't aware of the full picture behind the screen.

So avoid being unmotivated to seek help, avoid disengaging in physical activity because of your worries and anxieties. Instead think back to those few seconds of downtime that you may have, remove the monster sitting in our hands or bags, pick up a book, listen to music and find that acceptance, freedom and normality that we once had.

This piece was written by student writer, Lyla 

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