Body image shapes teen confidence
Young people in particular have been swept up in the hype surrounding society’s current obsession with body image.
It’s just a fact of life. We’re all born with bodies of different shapes and sizes over which we have no real control at all. Each of us is limited by our genes and our own inherent predisposition towards having a particular body type.
Some people are shaped like a spoon, with their upper body smaller than their lower body. Others are shaped like an hourglass – curvy with a larger upper and lower body, but smaller waist. Another shape is the straight ruler, with not much difference between the upper and lower body. Then there’s the cone shape, which is where the upper body is shaped larger than the lower body.
We can’t change the way our body is built, but we can try and make the most of what we’ve got. That means looking after our bodies with regular exercise and following healthy eating habits. We can also do our best to feel good about ourselves just the way we are. But without responsive role modelling and positive reinforcement, teenagers in particular often wither in despair or resort to drastic measures to try and attain the unattainable.
Today’s culture has enshrined a tall thin body for women, and a slim muscular body for men as not only ideals, but almost prerequisites to get ahead. Skinny now means success for many people. And in an age that literally worships celebrities who help perpetuate these largely unachievable standards, that’s bad news for the vast majority of us who fall outside the current definition of physical perfection.
But the perfect body hasn’t always been seen this way. In leaner times, being thin was associated with either being poor or sick, or both. Eating well was a privilege not a right and society in the past looked down upon those who looked underfed. However, once food became cheaper and more accessible to everyone in the middle of last century, gluttony and vanity inevitably came into conflict, and from that point onwards, slimming diets began to surface. And over the past three decades in particular, there has been a dieting frenzy.
This has given rise to a vigorous carbs v protein debate that seems to shift one way and then the other with alarming regularity, along with some downright dangerous dieting fads. Current favourites among teenagers and twenty-somethings are the 'slow-down eating' diet, the ‘single food’ or ‘food substitution’ diet, and a host of other more extreme measures.
These include the Hollywood crash diet which revolves around having less than 600 calories a day for 18 days straight, and the controversial ‘size zero’ phenomenon – an American creation which actually translates as a size 6 here. It is based on not eating for a set amount of time, relying instead on taking multivitamin supplements and drinking soda water, alcohol, caffeine-rich beverages and the like.
This last one is definitely the most perilous of all, and is really just a thinly veiled introduction to embracing a potentially life-threatening eating disorder. Worse still, it is being joyfully promoted by freakishly large-headed tiny-bodied celebs, as the smart way to get thin fast.
“Within a week of giving up the ‘size zero’ diet, my headaches stopped, my depression vanished, and I slept soundly at night,” said Dawn Porter, who went on to write a book about her body image driven nightmare. “Best of all, my sense of fun and joy in life has returned. More than anything, I realised I missed being happy.”
Body image shapes confidence, particularly among young people, and the way you feel about the way you look can have a massive effect on your mood, outlook on life, and ultimately your happiness.
Rev Philip Griffin of St Andrews Church Wahroonga worked at St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney in the emergency ward for a number of years before embarking on Christian ministry. He came into contact with many teenagers obsessed with weight loss, and others who suffered from drug dependency, alcohol abuse and depressive outbursts brought on by body image issues. Many of these young people were permanently damaged by their ordeals.
"When teenagers read or listen to adults discussing the benefits of Botox, liposuction, breast implants, and the like, why are we surprised that they think having the perfect body is more important than having healthy relationships?” Philip Griffin observes.
"Less talk about who looks hot and more talk about healthy relationships would go a long way in helping to stop the obsession with a perfect body, that so many of our teenagers aspire to have," says Griffin. "And let’s face it, from a spiritual point of view, having a so-called perfect body is obviously not the key to eternal happiness and fulfilment.”
Having a positive body image is essential for young people, as a healthy level of self esteem helps teenagers face and overcome the challenges of growing up. And the weaker your self esteem, the more vulnerable you are to negative influences and dangerous temptations.
Recent research found that 80% of 12 year old Australian girls were not happy with their current size or thought they were fat, and want to lose weight. This rose to almost 90% for 15 year old girls. And a new trend to emerge in recent years is that teenage boys are now increasingly becoming worried about their own body image.
Depression and anxiety tend to go hand in hand with people who drink excessively. And often, vulnerable young people drink too much due to low self esteem and a twisted view of body image. High school adds further peer pressure. However, there are organisations out there mentoring to teenagers in order to redress the body image imbalance.
Young Life Australia for example is active in around 20 secondary schools, with a team of fully trained well-resourced volunteers providing guidance, self-empowerment and positive reinforcement. Young Life also offers external after-school programs and activities designed to build self-confidence, boost self-esteem and encourage resilience in young people.
It's not easy, for young people especially, to be body, soul and mind positive at all times, let alone even for some of the time. So having the skills and knowledge to be resilient in the face of fixed and inflexible attitudes, encourages young people to value individuality, accept differences, improve self confidence, and expand their views on life.
As organisations like Young Life understand only too well, body image is one of the key drivers in a young person’s life. Because ultimately, the way you feel about yourself determines not only the way you treat others, but how others treat you.
Article Date: 4.08.2008
Author: Philip Jenkinson
Sources: Today Show 27/6/2008. Rev Philip Griffin 1/8/2008. Countdown to Zero – Dawn Porter. 2007.
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