Social Media and Body Image

These days body shaming is everywhere. I turn on TV and see a commercial telling me how these jeans will slim the look of my waist line. I get in my car, turn on  the radio and the first thing I hear is an ad for some miracle diet pill that will help me lose weight. I get to work and all of the women are talking about how much they hate their body and need to lose weight. I go out with my friends and find that both guys and girls talk about what diet they have recently started. With all of this going on around me, is it any wonder that when I look in the mirror the first thing I do is start to pick apart places I need to improve?

I think the thing that bothers me most is the message we are sending to kids. This next generation never knew of a life without without social media. They are constantly being fed all of these lies that companies use to make a little bit more money. What is this doing? Here are some scary statistics I got from the NEDA website :

• 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat (Mellin et al., 1991).

• 46% of 9-11 year-olds are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets, and 82% of their families are “sometimes” or “very often” on diets (Gustafson-Larson & Terry, 1992).

• Over one-half of teenage girls and nearly one-third of teenage boys use unhealthy weight control behaviors such as skipping meals, fasting, smoking cigarettes, vomiting, and taking laxatives (Neumark-Sztainer, 2005).
• 35-57% of adolescent girls engage in crash dieting, fasting, self-induced vomiting, diet pills, or laxatives. Overweight girls are more likely than normal weight girls to engage in such extreme dieting (Boutelle, Neumark-Sztainer, Story, &Resnick, 2002; Neumark-Sztainer&Hannan, 2001; Wertheim et al., 2009). 

• Of American elementary school girls who read magazines, 69% say that the pictures influence their concept of the ideal body shape. 47% say the pictures make them want to lose weight (Martin, 2010).

This problem has gotten out of control. Those magazines the elementary school girls are reading have models that have all been photoshopped. No one actually looks like they do in the picture. Yet that is what is seen as being acceptable. 

Here is one example of how different the final image really looks from the person it started with. This isn't just a girl thing either. 

The media will pick apart you men too. So now we have boys and girls growing up thinking that they have to look pretty much perfect, which I know is just not possible. So what happens when they can't meet that standard look that the media gives us? They start to feel ashamed of the way they look. That's why we have statics like this: 

• The rate of development of new cases of eating disorders has been increasing since 1950 (Hudson et al., 2007; Streigel-Moore &Franko, 2003; Wade et al., 2011).
• There has been a rise in incidence of anorexia in young women 15-19 in each decade since 1930 (Hoek& van Hoeken, 2003).
• The incidence of bulimia in 10-39 year old women TRIPLED between 1988 and 1993 (Hoek& van Hoeken, 2003).
• The prevalence of eating disorders is similar among Non-Hispanic Whites, Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asians in the United States, with the exception that anorexia nervosa is more common among Non-Hispanic Whites (Hudson et al., 2007; Wade et al., 2011).

It's time for us to start fighting back. Letting companies know that it's not ok. Eating disorders are not some glamorous thing that will help you lose weight, be cool and fit in. Instead you will get this: 

In anorexia nervosa’s cycle of self-starvation, the body is denied the essential nutrients it needs to function normally. Thus, the body is forced to slow down all of its processes to conserve energy, resulting in:

• Abnormally slow heart rate and low blood pressure, which mean that the heart muscle is changing. The risk for heart failure rises as the heart rate and blood pressure levels sink lower and lower.
• Reduction of bone density (osteoporosis), which results in dry, brittle bones.
• Muscle loss and weakness.
• Severe dehydration, which can result in kidney failure.
• Fainting, fatigue, and overall weakness.
• Dry hair and skin; hair loss is common.
• Growth of a downy layer of hair—called lanugo—all over the body, including the face, in an effort to keep the body warm.

A review of nearly fifty years of research confirms that anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder (Arcelus, Mitchell, Wales, & Nielsen, 2011).

For females between fifteen to twenty-four years old who suffer from anorexia nervosa, the mortality rate associated with the illness is twelve times higher than the death rate of all other causes of death (Sullivan, 1995).

The recurrent binge-and-purge cycles of bulimia can affect the entire digestive system and can lead to electrolyte and chemical imbalances in the body that affect the heart and other major organ functions. Health consequences include:

• Electrolyte imbalances that can lead to irregular heartbeats and possibly heart failure and death.
• Electrolyte imbalance is caused by dehydration and loss of potassium, sodium and chloride from the body as a result of purging behaviors.
• Potential for gastric rupture during periods of binging.
• Inflammation and possible rupture of the esophagus from frequent vomiting.
• Tooth decay and staining from stomach acids released during frequent vomiting.
• Chronic irregular bowel movements and constipation as a result of laxative abuse.
• Peptic ulcers and pancreatitis.

And that is just the physical side effects. Let's not forget that eating disorders are a mental illness. And I'm not even going to go into how poorly insurance covers treatment, I'll save that for another post. 

What if instead of focusing on what the media has to say we start focusing on what God has to say? Like 1 Peter 3:3-4 "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quite spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight." And Psalm 139:14-16, " I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; you works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth your eyes saw my unformed body." And what about 1 Samuel 15:30, "But the LORD said to Samuel, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." How much better would it be if kids growing up heard those words rather than the constant stream of perfecting one's self? If we could focus on who we are as a person, our morals, our values, the way we actually live our life not just what we say we believe in, how much better could this world be? 

As one person I can't change very much when it comes to changing the way social media has this ideal image that they use for everything. But if I stand up and say something, and someone else stands up and says something, maybe together we can actually make a change.