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Ravneet Kaur

Mr. Hellmers

English Composition 1201

17 March 2022

Body Image Issues

Body image, how a person perceives their own body, is an important issue that is not

talked about enough. People’s lives are severely impacted by the perception of their own bodies

because it directly affects their sense of self-worth and self-love. A lot of people suffer from

body image issues whether it’s them being insecure about their weight, height, skin, hair, facial

features or any other body part. It is very common for almost everyone to have insecurities about

their bodies, especially women and girls. Although many people don’t realize it, a simple

comment they make about another individual’s body could result in serious consequences. The

individual could become insecure and it might bring down their self-esteem and confidence,

especially since people are more likely to remember an insult than a compliment about their

bodies. A positive body image is necessary in order for someone to pursue a healthy lifestyle and

be confident in themselves because comparing body types or being obsessed with fixing a certain

feature about themselves could result in extreme negative body image issues. Body image issues

have a huge impact on an individual's life as they affect them mentally by lowering their

self-esteem, physically by making them insecure causing them to eventually develop disorders

such as an eating disorder or a binge-eating disorder, and socially by runining the person’s

relationships with other people due to the insecurities and stress.

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Society has always given beauty a lot of importance. There are specific expectations set

for people to look a certain way in order to be considered beautiful or pretty by society. Although

society still values beauty just as much or maybe even more now, the beauty standards have

changed over the years. In her article, Soyoung Kim describes that traditionally “women

considered extra weight to be an indicator of higher status and better health” and how back then

“being thin represents poverty and unhealthiness” (2018). Beforehand, people who weighed

more than others were considered to be rich or of higher status than people who were more on

the thinner side as they were considered to be poor and were thought to not have enough money

or food. However today, due to the mass influence of the Western culture on other cultures

around the world, women now value thinness. The Western beauty standards have been reaching

the other sides of the world. Since the West is mainstream in the media, people living in other

regions of the world are starting to change their beauty standards according to what they see on

the West side. The ideal body type throughout the years has changed making body image issues

worse, especially due to the wide expanse of the media and the influence of Western culture all

over the world.

One of the ways poor self-body image results in affecting people mentally is by hurting

their self-esteem and self-confidence. More severe cases could lead to other mental issues such

as body dysmorphia, depression, anxiety, and suicidal tendencies. In her article, Kim discusses

how people who make more comparisons of themselves to others who they think are perfect are

more likely to experience critical depression than people who do not tend to make those

comparisons. One of the reasons behind this is that the comparisons result in a low self-esteem

which leads them to be overly self-conscious about their appearances to the point everything
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revolves around it and their appearance is the one and only important thing in their lives. Not

being able to be satisfied with their own bodies makes people think they are less than those

around them. It makes them feel less worthy which could eventually lead to depression. Along

with depression, many people might even develop body dysmorphia. Body dysmorphia is a

mental health condition that involves being overly obsessed over their appearances and trying to

fix any flaw they see in themselves. Body dismorphia causes an overwhelming feeling of shame,

guilt, and self-hatred and it is a lot more common than many would think. It is very harmful for

people to have body dysmorphia as it makes people think they look completely different than

they actually do. Even people who workout a lot and eat very healthy also have a pretty high

chance of developing body dysmorphia.

Fig. 1. Body Dysmorphia (Becker)

Having a negative body image causes many people to develop severe mental health

conditions by making them insecure about themselves and think of them as inferior to those who

are considered more beautiful than them. A study done in an article by Amy Morin found that
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people who were not happy with how they look were at a higher risk for suicide and self-harm.

Due to the unrealistic ideal beauty standards set by society, many people develop low self-esteem

and dissatisfaction with their bodies. Trying to live up to those expectations and failing to do so

could result in people feeling low or self-hatred towards themselves leading to people taking

some serious actions such as self-harming or even more. Along with causing mental issues, a

negative body image also causes physical issues.

Fig. 2. Mentally exhausted from trying to fit in (Osmani)

People could also be affected physically because of a negative body image. Seeing others

around them being perfect ends up with people wanting to change themselves to look like them

even if it involves unhealthy practices which could further lower one’s self-esteem. Some even

go to the extent of getting plastic surgeries to fit into the beauty standards even if it comes with

some serious risks. Kim discusses in her article how “South Korea has the highest rate of plastic

surgery procedures among all Asian countries” (Kim). South Korea is one of the country that has

one of the highest beauty standards in the world. Wanting to meet those expectations led a lot of

people to get procedures done on them, especially fat-reduction procedures to make people fit
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the beauty standards. Although plastic surgeries improve many people’s self-esteem and body

image, it also comes with a lot of risks that could potentially hurt their bodies, such as infections,

fluid buildup, excess bleeding, scarring, etc. Eating and binge-eating disorders are also results of

the poor relationship with weight and body image. A study done by Han, discussed in the article

by Kim, found that people being exposed to images of ideal body types in the media greatly

influenced ordinary people by leading them to make extreme changes to their eating habits to

attain a body type they see in the media. Seeing ideal body types all over the social media could

result in people wanting to be the same way, leading them to make changes in their lives to fit

their desires and increasing the prevalence of eating disorders or binge-eating disorders. People

start developing a bad relationship by either eating too little to no food at all or eating too much

and then feeling guilt and ashamed of them themselves about it. Eating disorders and binge

eating disorders are both serious issues since many people struggling with them choose to suffer

in silence because they do not know how to deal with it or how to ask for help because they

might feel ashamed of it. In some cases, people do not even realize that they are struggling with

such issues to even ask for help. Body image issues could also result in people beginning

substance and tobacco use due to dissatisfaction with themselves and wanting to become like the

people they see around themselves but cannot. Not being able to be satisfied by themselves and

how they look causes people stress and anxiety. Using certain substances could be an escape for

them because it relieves their stress, gives them pleasure, and helps them deal with the

disappointment in themselves. Some other self-destructive behaviors are “self-mutilation,

compulsive skin picking, repeating cosmetic exercising, including weight lifting” (Gale).

Excessive dieting, exercising and being overly nit-picky about one’s features cause severe
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physical harm. Obsession with exercising too much could cause injuries to one’s body that could

last their whole lives. Not only does negative body image ruin one’s physical health, it also ruins

one’s relationships with those around them.

People’s relationships with others could also be ruined by their body image issues since

people surrounding an individual also have a great impact on their self-image. Kim discusses the

amount of consistent pressure that family, friends, and the media place on an individual to fit the

ideal body type by “making this idealistic body seem attainable and causing psychological

distress for individuals who cannot achieve this” (Kim). Family and friends play a huge role in

one’s life as people seek validation from others to feel more self-confident and have higher

self-esteem. However, when their own family insults them or brings them down because of their

appearance, it makes people feel less confident and distant from their own family members or

peers. A lot of people tend to make jokes about their family members or friends thinking it’s just

a light and harmless joke; however, no one knows how much impact it has on the person who is

being made fun of. The results from a research done by Shin and Shin in the article written by

Kim show that parental upbringing, peers, and the media has a great influence on the

development of body image, and whether or not this results to eating disorders later on in life.

People seek validation and comfort from those around them but when they are given the opposite

of what they want, they stop because having to meet up with society's and your family’s

standards could lead to stress and eventually end up destroying your relationships with people.

Parents and relatives don’t tend to think much before speaking and don’t realize the effects it has

on other people.
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The amount of impact people surrounding an individual has on their body image goes

unnoticed by most. Reports have shown that “girls who saw their mothers as being unhappy with

their bodies were more likely to report being unhappy with their own” (Gale). Children

surrounded by people who have negative body images are more likely to develop unhealthy

thoughts about their own bodies. Similarly, children who grow up around parents who live a very

strict lifestyle in terms of dieting or working out are more likely to be self-conscious about their

weight or body and be just as strict as their parents about their lifestyle. Children are twice as

likely to diet or workout if they see their parents doing the samewhile growing up. Many people

might have experienced this and most likely do not realize how it impacted them. Another

example would be how people hanging around people who work out a lot and take care of their

bodies are more likely to be follow a similar lifestyle than those who are around people who do

not work out, eat whatever they want, and live a carefree lifestyle. Being friends with people

who live a healthy lifestyle makes people also want to do the same because they see their friends

doing it and are influenced by them. The same goes for when people who hang out with people

who are quite lazy and are not active as much leads them to also be the same way. Who people

surround themselves with affects a lot their choices and decisions about their lifestyles and body

image, but what they see on social media can also have a lot of effect.

The presentation of unrealistic beauty expectations, especially on social media, also

affects a lot of people. Interview conducted in 2016 found that out of the total of ten thousand

sixty percent of the people being interviewed in thirteen different countries felt pressure and the

need to fit into the society’s described beauty standards. Most people want to be considered

pretty or handsome by others and fit what the definition of beauty set by society since people’s
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opinion matters more than what people actually think of themselves. There are also different

types of ideal body types in men and women represented on social media. For women, the

perfect body is generally described as being slim and toned, whereas for men, the ideal body is

usually presented as them being strong and ripped with a very low percentage of fat on their

bodies. Minorities such as people of color, people with disabilities, and people with different

body types have also been very underrepresented in the media and are not usually to be presented

as being beautiful or handsome. Constantly seeing people who meet the ideal body type

standards everywhere on social media being perfect and living the perfect lifestyle makes people

compare themselves to them and feel bad about themselves. Being exposed to such unrealistic

ideal body types can affect a person’s self-confidence long-term. Media platforms such as TVs

and magazines make it a lot easier and faster for an ideal body from social media to reach other

cultures around the world. Many teenagers also look for validation from their friends and social

media makes it a lot easier. The amount of followers one has, likes on a picture, or comments

start to matter more and more. The media largely promotes the perception that thin and slim

bodies for women and ripped bodies for men are the way to reach the overexaggerated ideal

body type. The media seems to be only promoting thinness in women which makes it more

expected to be thin in order to be considered attractive all over the world. People see influencers

or celebrities looking absolutely perfect with not a pimple or any insight. However, what people

fail to realize is how much of the things shown on social media are fake and photoshopped.

There are trends every once in a while and everyone just dives on the trend without a second

thought. For example, in the beginning of quarantine in 2020, many people started doing Chloe

Ting’s workout on Tiktok. Everyone joined in on the trend and it became widely known. Due to
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its popularity, even people who never worked out in their lives also started working out and later

developed insecurities about their bodies that they didn’t have beforehand. They started being

obsessed with their bodies and their appearances as they slowly started to realize find insecurities

in themselves they wanted to fix with the workouts but couldn’t. Seeing multiple people getting

results from the workout whereas they don’t see a change in their own bodies led them to have

lower confidence. Social media platforms such as Tiktok or Instagram show ideal lifestyles that

celebrities or influencers live. While the influencers share their tips about how to become like

them, people just follow them without thinking too much. People forget that a lot of people only

show the good parts of their lives and not the bad parts. Since some people start becoming

self-conscious about their bodies after watching others, self image issues could start at a pretty

early age.

Body image issues start at a very young age for a lot of people. According to a research

done in 2015, “more than one-half of girls and one-third of boys ages six to eight wish that they

were thinner, and about one-quarter of children as young as seven have engaged in some sort of

dieting behavior” (Gale). Insecurities about bodies can start at a very young age due to the

changes of puberty which negatively influences their body image. The problem is that every

teenager develops at a different rate. Watching other teenagers develop differently than

themselves or at a different pace than their own could result in them feeling isolated and doubtful

about whether they appear normal or attractive. During puberty, the bodies have to go through a

lot of different changes and some changes people will not be comfortable or be confident with.

The rapid and drastic physical changes often make teenagers become intensely self-conscious.

Due to children beginning to understand the idea of how weight and body images work at a
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young age, they start using eating habits that are unhealthy which originates dissatisfaction with

their body in a child’s early life. Although people agree that body image issues negatively affect

other, some people think it also has positive effects.

Some misconceptions about body image issues are that having body image issues could

lead to people finally taking care of themselves and starting living a healthy lifestyle; however, it

could become a problem if the person gets overly obsessed with how their appearances. Many

might assume that body image issues would make people more self-aware about their bodies and

health which could help them make healthy decisions to help themselves but there is a higher

chance that it could backfire. People might end up over-exercising or paying too much attention

to what they eat. During quarantine, I downloaded an app called MyFitnessPal to count the

amount of calories I ate in a day. I originally thought the app would help me become a healthier

person; however, it became the complete opposite. I became obsessed with calories. Even now

when I don’t even use the app anymore, I still tend to count calories in my head. The app gave

me an estimate of how many calories each food that I eat has and now although I don’t use the

app, I am still doing the same but in my head. Sometimes I even skip dinner because the calories

of the amount of food I ate during the day were too much and I thought I was going to gain

weight. People used to assume that people are automatically healthy when they are thin and

unhealthy when they are overweight; however, people tend to forget that no one knows what a

person is going through. “Western cultures generally associate thinness with healthy eating and

exercise, and link extra weight with laziness or a lack of motivation” (Kim). A person might be

starving themselves and only eating one meal a day to become skinnier or they might be

exercising a lot more than necessary to reach their goals. Most people never know when
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someone is struggling with an eating disorder, binge-eating disorder, or worse. Judging someone

from the way they look is not a healthy perspective to look from. Judgment about appearances

also tends to differ beatween different countries and cultures.

Depending on the geographical location, beauty standards differ. A body type that is

considered an ideal body type in the United States might not be considered the same in another

country. People living in different environments have different perspectives on what an ideal

body type looks like. Soyoung Kim discusses that “although South Korean women tend to have a

lower body mass index (BMI) compared to North American women, they nevertheless perceive

themselves as overweight” (Kim). Women in South Korea think of themselves as being

overweight even when they have a lower BMI than the women in North America. Seeing

different beauty standards all over the world, especially when people move to different countries,

could change their mindset or outlook on the beauty standards a lot. Where people are born and

raised have a huge impact on how they see themselves and others appearance-wise.

Body image issues are a lot more common than people might think and they can hurt

many people’s lives in multiple different ways such as mentally, physically, and socially. It

impacts a person’s lives their lives severely. There is always that one person in everyone's lives

who they think is better than them or more beautiful than them. They might become jealous of

them and change their habits to look like them which makes their body image issues get worse.

People need to start focusing on living a happier lifestyle rather than seeking to meet the beauty

standards and expectations that society has set up. Expectations and standards for beauty are very

unrealistic as everyone is different and beautiful in their own ways which is what makes them

unique. However, many people fail to realize that and end up hurting themselves in the long run.
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Works Cited

Amy Morin, LCSW. “Help Prevent Exposure to the Media from Damaging Your Teen's Body

Image.” Verywell Family, Verywell Family, 6 Jan. 2022,

www.verywellfamily.com/media-and-teens-body-image-2611245. Accessed 6 Mar. 2022.

"Body Image." Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2021. Gale In Context:

Opposing Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/PC3010999221/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=54

e17b21. Accessed 6 Mar. 2022.

Kim, Soyoung. "EATING DISORDERS, BODY DISSATISFACTION, AND SELF-ESTEEM

AMONG SOUTH KOREAN WOMEN." Social Behavior and Personality: An

International Journal, vol. 46, no. 9, Sept. 2018, pp. 1537+. Gale In Context: Opposing

Viewpoints,

link.gale.com/apps/doc/A556734563/OVIC?u=dayt30401&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=e

8d555e3. Accessed 6 Mar. 2022.

Osmani, Summaya. “The Impact of Social Media on Body Image.” The BHS Beat,

https://bhsbeat.org/3030/wellness/the-impact-of-social-media-on-body-image/.

Tim Becker, MD. “Body Dysmorphic Disorder.” How to Recognize It and Treat It, Buoy Health,

Inc., 30 Mar. 2021, https://www.buoyhealth.com/learn/body-dysmorphic-disorder.