Self-esteem and body image go hand and hand, and affect every one of us. For some, the media’s portrayal of the “perfect body” and peer pressure can seriously harm a person, and lead them down a dangerous path.
According to CAMH, about 90 per cent of people diagnosed with eating disorders are girls and women. However, boys and men are increasingly being diagnosed. Although most eating disorders develop during adolescence, eating disorders can occur at any time.
Many things contribute to how someone feels about their body. Genetics, peer pressure, age, and ethnic, cultural and social status all play important roles in how people feel about how they look. The media can also influence body image, and can be seen as the number one reason why society has such a warped idea of beauty.
“Everywhere girls go, they are exposed to unrealistic body expectations,” said Emma Castro, a third year English and Linguistics student at Trent University. “On magazine covers all you see is stuff like ‘quick ways to lose 10 pounds’ or ‘how to get to the perfect weight.’ Even little girls are exposed to skinny Barbies, skinny cartoon characters, skinny everything. It’s pretty much ingrained into our heads for as long as we can remember.”
Click here to see a timeline on the evolution of beauty standards
Castro has seen first-hand how negative body image can affect a person. Last year, she watched her close friend Katherine suffer from anorexia.
“I want to say society drives people to low self esteem and eating disorders, and that’s such a stereotypical answer, but when I really think about it, I was never striving to be like ‘wow, I wish I looked like this celebrity’ or ‘I wish I was as skinny as this person’, you know?” said Katherine Baxter, a former anorexic. “It’s more like how certain body types are just viewed as prettier than others,” she said.
According to The Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders, there are three types of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating disorder.
Jessica Bodach, a member of CAMH’s National Youth Advisory Committee, says supporting a loved one with an eating disorder can be difficult.
“Watching a loved one struggle with an eating disorder can make a person feel frightened, frustrated, and ultimately useless. It can be hard to even approach the topic of their disorder without fearing that you may make them feel angry and defensive,” she said. “It’s crucial to communicate your care and concern for them in a non-threatening way.”
When approaching someone you think is struggling with an eating disorder, Bodach says being gentle, friendly and supportive is imperative.
“Make it clear that you’re on their side. Respect them by letting them choose whether or not to accept your help and support. Don’t try to strip them of their autonomy by forcing them to change by your means instead of their own. Despite the outcome of the first conversation, remember that trying to talk about your loved one’s struggle is more supportive than never acknowledging it at all.”
People suffering from anorexia have an intense and irrational fear of gaining weight and having body fat and are obsessed with being thin. They believe they are fat, even when they are well below the healthy weight for their height and age. People suffering from bulimia go through cycles of bingeing and purging in order to feel nauseous and vomit up all of the food they ate. On the other end of the spectrum, people with binge eating disorder overeat compulsively, consuming huge amounts of food, often all at once.
For Baxter, anorexia nervosa deeply affected her life and put her near death.
“I’ve had body image issues ever since I was in the seventh grade, but it didn’t get bad until last year,” she said. “It originally started with just trying to lose all the weight I gained in first year of university. I lost about 15 pounds completely healthy with no excessive exercise or no starving myself, and I felt really good about myself until I went back for my second year.”
During her second year of university, Baxter made a point to eat healthy and stay active in order to avoid gaining weight like she did the previous year.
“Around Christmas of 2013, I got totally swamped with assignments and I used to be a huge stress eater, but instead I started like ‘stress starving’ because I was way too busy to bother cooking up a meal, and I ended up losing about 25 pounds.”
The following February, Baxter was diagnosed with gallstones, which is a common side effect of rapid weight loss.
“The doctor told me how gallbladder ‘attacks’ can be triggered by certain foods and I went and looked it up and I decided to go vegan just to help myself out, and it didn’t even occur to me that I’d be eating less than I was before. It got to the point where I couldn’t eat anything without having an attack.”
Eventually, it got so bad that Baxter, a 5-foot tall 21-year-old, weighed only 93 pounds, and had dangerously low blood pressure along with risk of heart failure, and needed to have her gallbladder removed. It had gotten so bad that she had stopped getting her monthly menstrual cycle, another common side effect of low body weight.
“They diagnosed me with anorexia nervosa, and they highly recommended therapy but I didn’t want to. They said if I gained weight by my next like follow up appointment then we wouldn’t make me go to therapy,” she said.
According to Canadian Women’s Health Network, in Canada alone, it’s estimated that 80 per cent of women and girls are unhappy with their appearance.
In 2014, a new body image movement started, and it was called “The Year of the Booty.”
Celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Meghan Trainor, Iggy Azalea, Jennifer Lopez and most notably, Nicki Minaj, flaunted their curves and showed the world that being beautiful comes in all shapes and sizes. Curves that were once seen as a curse had become an asset.
“The whole ‘booty movement’ is really refreshing,” said Castro. “Since I have been a dancer my whole life, I’ve always had an bigger butt and bigger legs, and I always was insecure about that growing up but now everyone’s all about the booty.”
Nicki Minaj’s smash hit song Anaconda praised curvy women and started an important conversation about the sexual empowerment of women and the embracing of all body types. Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass also flooded airwaves, and talked about accepting your body and loving what you have.
The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty began in 2004, and has been a major face of self-love and self-esteem ever since. In 2010, Dove set out a new vision for the brand with the Dove Movement for Self-Esteem. The movement provides women everywhere with opportunities to mentor the next generation and celebrate real beauty.
According to Dove, in a study of over 1,200 girls between the ages of 10 and 17, a majority of 72 per cent said they felt tremendous pressure to be beautiful. The study also found that only 11 per cent of girls around the world feel comfortable using the word beautiful to describe their looks, showing that there is a universal increase in beauty pressure and a decrease in girls’ confidence as they grow older.
sheridan body image 