one size doesn’t fit all

As someone who has struggled with my own body image massively over the last few years and being selfconscious of the way people view me, it is becoming increasingly hard to ignore the stereotypes of fashion and how social media is a platform for such negativity. The issue is more prominent within teenagers and young adults, with more than 31% reporting to have felt ashamed of their physique.

This is a topic that frequently comes up in conversations with my friends, and I can honestly say that the majority of them have experienced feelings of negativity about the way they look. This is an important conversation to have with people you are close to, so you can understand what headspace they are in and how they regard their being. But in some situations, it is fairly obvious that someone doesn’t like their body. However, those that keep these thoughts inside their head don’t have anyone to dissuade them. My flatmate told of how, “a s I get older, the more complexed I feel as I look at my reflection in the mirror and see a body I don’t like. I think social media idealises a certain body type and we are expected to follow this. It’s hard to break out of the cycle of toxicity.”

There are many factors that cause negative feelings, however, when media constantly promotes unrealistic ideals of beauty, diet talk, body shaming, thinspiration and weight loss posts, this definitely doesn’t help those going through the self-demeaning feelings. These posts and ads are often made by non-professionals who are likely to be intentionally or unintentionally promoting unhealthy cleanses and diets. When seeing these posts, it is hard to avoid thinking about your weight and calorie consumption. People become obsessed

by Bethan Croft

with the notion of losing weight so they can look like what they see online. The Mental Health Foundations survey found that 40% of young people 'said that images on social media have caused them to worry in relation to their body image.’ In many cases this can lead to body dysmorphia, anxiety and eating disorders. In the UK, there are between 1.25 and 3.4 million people affected by an eating disorder, with the number constantly fluctuating. According to Priory, this psychiatric disorder has the highest mortality rates. Many cases of people with eating disorders show their social media usage to be high, meaning they were likely exposed to high content of fashion influencers and exercise plans.

Social media only propels the issue further forward by introducing beauty filters, and some users also indulge in photoshop before posting. Photoshop tools can be used to even out skin tones, hide blemishes, whiten teeth, change your figure, or even reconstruct your stature. Figures in a study carried out by a professor at UCL in 2021, show that 90% of women report using a filter or editing their photos before posting. Young women in the study also described regularly seeing advertisements or push notifications for cosmetic procedures, particularly for teeth whitening, lip fillers, and surgery to enhance face and body features.

Families like the Kardashians are very influential in the world of fashion and beauty to the point where they have created many of the now-accepted beauty standards of the last decade. Women and beauty enthusiasts envy their curvy figures and aspire to be like them. It has got to the point where their looks are so desirable that ‘the Kardashian Effect’ has begun to take place, this term is used to describe the rise in number of teens and young adults seeking plastic surgery treatments to enhance their looks.

Whilst I am all for feeling secure in your body and doing what it takes to help you gain that feeling of content, if we weren’t so exposed to these drastic extremities of body modification in the first place then the insecurities would never have worsened to the extent of seeking surgery to conform to such beauty standards.

The issue at the heart of most insecure individuals is the judgement of others and themselves. I have witnessed many young women and men on social media be the subject of keyboard warriors, who feel it is okay to comment on pictures leaving degrading messages. Every year this issue spikes when Love Island comes back onto our screens; the contestants are often victims of cyber abuse, receiving death threats and putting them down about their weight, or objectifying them in sexual ways, through use of detrimental names such as ‘slag’. Amber Gill, the 2019 winner of the show received 3000 daily abusive comments. This isn’t just an online problem though, as it can often be witnessed in public places when those wearing short outfits get cat-called, and sometimes people feel too uncomfortable to wear certain pieces of clothing. Student, Jordan, tells of how this affects her, “if we both wore the same outfit, it would look very different on me compared to what it would on you because we have different body types. It would be acceptable for you to go out wearing a crop top with a low neckline but if it was me, I would probably be told to go home and change.”

Whilst body image is talked about a lot in terms of how women feel in regard to it, and as a society, the male side of the problem is not talked about enough. This is not a one-genderonly issue. Many men feel that they feel emasculated; making them weak to admit to such insecurities. Student, Jakub, described how he compares himself to “better looking guys” and believes that he got this mindset partially from media consumption, which is “a platform to those better looking people, they can come across as condescending to people who do not fit that aesthetic.”

The modelling industry exemplifies this as they don’t reflect the overall average weight of society. Through anonymous survey responses, researchers found that 81% of models would be classified as underweight and many turn to unhealthy methods to keep the weight off. Approximately 40% of models have eating disorders, although experts believe this number to be much higher. 62% of models polled by The Model Alliance reported being asked to have to lose weight or change their shape or size by their agency or someone else in the industry.

Considering that ‘plus size’ equates to over 60% of UK women, the under-representation of these sizes on fashion websites and advertisements when shopping for clothes can make it hard for plus-sized customers to gauge how an outfit will look on them if they can only see what it looks like on someone with the opposite body type. In addition to this, Victoria Secret hired Barbara Palvin in 2019 and the media quickly labelled her as plus sized despite her only being a UK size 8. Some online sources describe the requirements to be a Victoria Secret Angel, with one being your body fat percentage has to be lower than 18%. Health websites like BuiltLean say that a healthy body fat percentage for an average woman is 25 to 35% while 15 to 17% is considered very low for a woman. Once again, the fashion industry promotes unhealthy images of body weight to impressionable audiences.

Fast fashion can also impact us in ways we may not even realise. Women tend to blame their own bodies for ill-fitting clothing, which is usually the product of fast fashion. Clothing of this style is made quickly and consideration to correct sizing lessens, it needs to be made fast so that it can go out with current onfashion pieces. People don’t get measured for clothing anymore as this doesn’t fit fast fashion regulations, so clothing doesn’t always fit to the size it says (e.g. too tight in one area but too loose

According to multiple websites, fashion trends are changing faster now than ever before, they have even split into 2 types of trend cycles: micro-fashion (lasting 3-5 years) and macrofashion (lasting 5-10 years), but it is becoming more often for a style to last less than a year. Hence, the increase in fast fashion which is accelerated by social media and influencers that promote fashion to easily

Many young people go through a phase of being so conscious of the way they look that they find it difficult to have the mentality of wearing things to please yourself instead of for the sake of the watchful eyes of social media. Once we regain the mindset of dressing in what makes you comfortable, this is when we begin to boost our confidence and self-esteem. u