Not sacrificing your mental health to have the perfect body.
i-D
The B&B Image Issue NO. 2019
I-DEAS, FASHION, BEAUTY, BODY, PEOPLE
Body & Beauty
IS ’S M WITH TANDARS?
WHAT I SOCIETY PROBLEM BEAUTY ST
The Rise
MENTAL HEALTH photography RHODA / words FONDATION
Having body image concerns is a relatively common experience and is not a mental health problem in and of itself; however, it can be a risk factor for mental health problems. Research has found that higher body dissatisfaction is associated with a poorer quality of life, psychological distress and the risk of unhealthy eating behaviours and eating disorders. The Online Harms White Paper should address harms relating to the promotion of unhelpful or idealised body image online, beyond content related to eating disorders. An improved practice on how social media platforms promote unhealthy imaging should be enforced by the new independent regulator. The Advertising Standards Authority should consider pre-vetting highreach broadcast adverts from high-risk industries – such as
cosmetic surgery companies and weight-loss products and services – to ensure all advertising abides by its codes. It should also make greater use of its ability to proactively instigate investigations. Social media companies should sign the Be Real Campaign’s Body Image Pledge and investigate new ways of using their platforms to promote positive body image and to ensure that a diversity of body types is presented positively to their users. Social media companies should have clear systems for users to report bullying and discrimination and targets for action to be taken. They should give users greater control over the content they see in an accessible way. Training for frontline health practitioners and the early years childcare workforce
should include information about how parents and carers can, from a very early age, positively influence their children’s feelings about their bodies through their behaviours and attitudes. Children and adults in distress should receive fast and empathetic support when they need it, regardless of where they live in the country. Public campaigns on nutrition and obesity should avoid the potential to create stigma and indirectly contribute to appearance-based bullying. They should focus on healthy eating and exercise for all members of the population, regardless of weight. A co-produced body image and media literacy toolkit should be a compulsory element of what children learn in schools. This should include the development of a charter for achieving a healthy and positive body image.
“I felt as if I had been born again, There’s only so much mental energy a person has each day, and I used to spend so much of it worrying about being ‘pretty’. Now I use that time to read books and exercise.” Said by: Cha Ji-won
....laborious skincare regimes and pressure to look perfect.
Women destroy makeup as part of backlash against culture of....
Fed up with Shapewear? ‘Escape the corset’: South Korean women rebel against strict beauty standards When Cha Ji-won decided to throw out all her makeup and cut her hair, her mother was the first to tease her: “Oh look, I have a son now.”
skills and by her early 20s would spend as much as 100,000 won (£70) a month on cosmetics. But amid a wider feminist awakening in South Korea, Cha has chosen For more than a dec- to ditch her makeup, lipstick and dyed ade, starting when blonde hair. she was 12, Cha would meticulously Cha is part of a apply cosmetics, chasing the narrow growing movedefinition of beau- ment in South Korea fighting against ty that dominates South Korean socie- unrealistic beauty ty. In middle school, standards that she applied founda- call for women to spend hours aption to lighten her plying makeup and skin tone, avoiding teachers who would perform skincare punish her for violat- regimes that involve 10 steps or more at ing school rules. each end of the day. Among their comShe watched Youplaints is that womTube make-up tuen must wake up two torials to hone her
seen record numbers of women take to the streets to demand greater equality and fight against issues such as illegal filming and sexual assault. The movement Women sick of the is an interesting turn in South Korea, a laborious routine nation that actively have started to post videos on social me- promotes its prowess dia of destroyed piles in cosmetic surof cosmetics with the gery – as much as a third of young catch-cry “escape the corset”, likening women have gone makeup to the garunder the knife ments that were part – and whose cosmetic brands are of daily women’s coveted around the garments for years world with an inand worked to condustry worth about strain bodies into a uniform shape. $12.5bn (£9.7bn), according to Euromonitor. The trend is part of a larger push against the country’s patriarReporting by chal society that has Kyungmi Choi hours before work to ensure perfect makeup, meticulously removing dead skin with peeling gel and steam towels before beginning their regimen.
Bo dy Women’s Body Confidence Is A ‘Critical Issue’ Worldwide Women’s body confidence has become a “critical issue” around the world and pressure from the media is largely to blame for our low self-esteem, a new report warns. The Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report, given exclusively to The Huffington Post UK, has been created using interviews with 10,500 women and girls across 13 countries and is the largest the brand has ever commissioned.
Beauty Is Never Hidden...
photography RHODA
No Matter The Body Weight!
Solution’s:
Learn to Love Your Body & Beauty!
What to do?
Clearly, the action is needed to build and promote positive body image and support good mental health and wellbeing in relation to our bodies. The need for commitment from social media companies
to play a key role in promoting body kindness. Everyone has a right to feel comfortable and confident in their own bodies and our report highlights key recommendations for: Effective regulation of how body image is portrayed.
Taking a public health approach to body image by training frontline health and education staff. Individually being more aware of how we can take care of ourselves and others in relation to body image.
GOOD VIBES ONLY
BAD VIBES LONELY
by J. AWOTWI DADZIE
BODY & BEAUTY BEAUTY MIGHT BE IMPORTANT BUT SO DOES YOUR BODY!
NO. 2019
SOUL