The world is ever changing. Whether it be socially, economically or environmentally. Growing up as a teenage girl, it can be easy to observe these changes. One area of social change that has always been highlighted and made to seem more important than it is, is looking perfect or ‘beauty standards’.
Although many centuries have passed, young women have always been indirectly told that their bodies are not good enough. This can mainly be seen in magazines such as in ‘Women’s Health’. When you look at the front cover of these magazines, all you really see are the words in capital letters; ’Bikini Body Now’, ‘Flat Stomach Finally’, ‘Slim Sexy Body’ or even ‘Get a Body you'll love’. 'You will love' this may tell people that they shouldn't love the bodies they already have. These headlines become worrying to women and of course men. One may feel that it is compulsory to ‘be skinny' or to ‘have a thigh gap’. Sometimes there can be impossible-sounding targets to reach, such as ‘Slim down in three days’ or ‘Gain abs in one week’. Gaining abs in one week seems like a simple and easy target. Infact, it involves cutting down from 2,500 thousand calroies to one thousand calories a day. Even then it won’t work. It is impossible to gain abs in one week without dangerously decreasing the amount of food or calories you eat from Sunday night to Monday morning.
‘Perfect bodies’ aren't just highlighted in magazines anymore, they are highlighted all over social media and youtube too. Celebrities including Bella and Gigi Hadid, the Kardashians and the Jenner’s and Ariana Grande are highly regarded as the 'perfect' people. Girls as young as ten already start becoming aware of being 'too' fat or 'too' skinny. As many of these celebrities are models, it is also reminded to young people that the images that are posted of them may often be airbrushed; their stomach is made to look flatter or their legs are toned etcetera. This inspires the young viewers to look just like their role models, often forgetting that the models photos have been slightly tampered with. Some of Gigi Hadid’s modeling photos have often removed her moles or birthmarks. Birthmarks are completely natural and beautiful. Somehow they are seen as a flaw.
A law in France recently banned ‘the use of unhealthily thin fashion models’. Now, models must prove that they are a healthy weight in relation to their height. This must be proven by a doctor. The health ministry hopes that this will fight the unhealthy beauty ideals of todays society.
Furthermore, there has been an increasing number of eating disorders over the past few decades. Around 1.6 million people in the UK are badly affected by an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. The most common age to have an eating disorder is in the ages between twelve all the way to twenty-six. Of course it is not just girls feel the underlying pressure to have the ‘perfect’ body, boys do too. Certain celebrities take pictures of themselves holding a tub or satchel of ‘FitTea’ or ‘Detox Tea’ or ‘TeaTox’ and, a very popular trend ‘Slim Fast’. This leads on to hard-core diets, for example the ‘cotton wool diet’ which comes with extreme health risks.
There have been many changes to the ‘ideal body’ over the last few centuries. Today, it is ideal to be a size zero. However in the 50s and 60s due to the famous Marilyn Monroe, it was very different. She had the ‘hourglass’ figure everyone dreamed of and was size twelve to sixteen across the decade. In fact, ‘curves’ have been blown up all over social media. Women have been desperately trying to enlarge certain parts of their body and if they don’t see any results, they may turn to surgery.
People today have forgotten that life shouldn't all be about how they look. What is worse, some people don’t exercise for their own health anymore. Instead ‘being healthy’ is being replaced by ‘looking good in a bikini’ or 'getting that summer body'. Everyone’s bodies are build differently. A fitness model one might follow on apps such as Instagram will have a differently build body and they might be driven to do fitness for different reasons. One thing to keep in mind is to be happy with who you are. Everyone is different, that is what makes the world so diverse. In the end, beauty comes from within.
By, Helen Schunemann, Sydenham High School, year 10.
