- "Body image is a person's thoughts, feelings and perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body."
Explore the messages society sends about beauty and bodies, and how those messages impact self-esteem and wellbeing.
Definition of body image: Understanding what body image is, the factors that shape it, and how it impacts women's lives.
Historical development of body image: Knowing how beauty standards have evolved over time and the impact of media, fashion, and beauty industries.
Body positivity movement: Understanding the concept of body positivity, its goals, and effectiveness in challenging societal beauty standards.
Body shaming: Recognizing various forms of body shaming, including fatphobia, ableism, and racism, and their impact on women's mental health and well-being.
Eating disorders: Understanding the root causes, effects, and treatment options for eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorders.
Intersectionality of body image: Recognizing how race, class, ability, age, and sexuality intersect with body image issues and how this affects women differently.
Body politics: Understanding how societal norms and expectations shape women's bodies and how feminist movements have challenged and resisted these norms.
Beauty industry: Examining how cosmetics, beauty products, and advertising shape beauty standards and reinforce negative body image messages.
Media representations: Understanding the impact of media representations on body image, including the portrayal of idealized beauty standards and the objectification of women's bodies.
Body positivity and social media: Examining how social media has contributed to the body positivity movement and ways users can challenge harmful beauty norms.
Self-love and self-care: Understanding the importance of self-love, self-care, and mental health in combating negative body image and promoting positive body image.
Feminism and body image: Understanding how feminist theory and activism have contributed to understanding body image issues and finding ways to challenge them on a societal level.
Positive body image: This describes a healthy and realistic appreciation of one's body, and it entails a clear understanding of your body's unique qualities and strengths.
Negative body image: This is the opposite of positive body image, and it occurs when you feel dissatisfied or even ashamed of your body, frequently striving to transform it into something different.
Body shaming: A body-shaming culture promotes the ridicule, criticism or judgment of people's physical appearances, making women feel inferior, humiliated, and belittled.
Body Dysmorphia: This is a mental health condition where an individual gets caught up in their perceived physical flaws, which could be non-existent or so small that others won't notice it.
Thin idealism: Women are frequently encouraged to strive to be thin or lose weight, Just being thin doesn't indicate that someone's healthy or happy, yet this societal ideal leads many women to have a negative attitude towards their body.
Body objectification: This describes people's focus on women's bodies as objects to be admired or desired, which can lead to the objectification of women and hurt self-esteem.
Self-Exploration of the Body: There is sometimes an adverse effect from both men and women's media's over-sexualized portrayal of women's bodies, which impacts people’s internalization of their own physicality.
Body Positivity: Women with an optimistic body image frequently engage in body positivity- practice exhibitionism, self-love, and acceptability of other types of bodies, including those that are different from the norm.
Size Acceptance: This is similar to body positivity as anyone with any shape & size is welcomed, celebrated and validated.
Intersectionality: Considering other socio-cultural aspects like race, ethnicity, class, religion, community, and disabilities- to deal with how these multiple dimensions intersect with an individual's body image perception.
Unapologetic Body Visibility: This term describes the decision to take ownership of one's body, highly confident in one's skin and life, showcasing your body outline, and discarding negative comments from society.
Body appreciation: Instead of just tolerating your body, one appreciates and values its abilities, talents, and feelings.
- "The concept of body image is used in a number of disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, medicine, psychiatry, psychoanalysis, philosophy, cultural and feminist studies."
- "Across these disciplines, there is no single consensus definition."
- "Body image consists of the ways people view themselves; their memories, experiences, assumptions, and comparisons about their own appearances; and their overall attitudes towards their own respective heights, shapes, and weights—all of which are shaped by prevalent social and cultural ideals."
- "Body image can be negative ('body negativity') or positive ('body positivity')."
- "In a time where social media holds a very important place and is used frequently in our daily lives, people of different ages are affected emotionally and mentally by the appearance and body size/shape ideals set by the society they live in."
- "These standards created and changed by society created a world filled with body shaming; the act of humiliating an individual by mocking or making critical comments about a person's physiological appearance."
- "Such behavior creates body dissatisfaction and higher risks of eating disorders, isolation, and mental illnesses in the long term."
- "In eating disorders, a negative body image may also lead to body image disturbance, an altered perception of the whole one's body."
- "Body dissatisfaction also characterizes body dysmorphic disorder, an obsessive-compulsive disorder defined by concerns about some specific aspect of one's body which is severely flawed and warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix."
- "Often, people who have a low body image will try to alter their bodies in some way, such as by dieting or by undergoing cosmetic surgery."
- "Many factors contribute to a person's body image, including family dynamics, mental illness, biological predispositions and environmental causes for obesity or malnutrition, and cultural expectations (e.g., media and politics)."
- "People who are either underweight or overweight can have poor body image."
- "those who are normal or overweight on the BMI scale have higher risks of poor body image."
- "A 2007 report by the American Psychological Association found that a culture-wide sexualization of girls and women was contributing to increased female anxiety associated with body image."
- "An Australian government Senate Standing Committee report on the sexualization of children in the media reported similar findings associated with body image."
- "However, other scholars have expressed concern that these claims are not based on solid data."
- "All of which are shaped by prevalent social and cultural ideals."
- "A person with a negative body image may feel self-conscious or ashamed, and may feel that others are more attractive."
- "On the other hand, positive body image consists of perceiving one's figure clearly and correctly, celebrating and appreciating one's body, and understanding that one's appearance does not reflect one's character or worth."