It’s a never-ending story: unrealistic beauty standards and what they do to our psyche. Yes, the situation is that serious – because even 10-year-olds develop body dysmorphic disorders thanks to media consumption.
The beauty pressure is getting worse and worse. Especially young women suffer from the constant propagation of supposedly perfect bodies – be it on social media, in commercials or video games. It is widely known that this portrayal of bodies far removed from everyday life is not good for the psyche. But there’s more to it than simply developing low self-esteem: body dysmorphic disorder.
The term body dysmorphia (body dysmorphic disorder, BDD) is most familiar in the context of transsexuality. It is a mental condition associated with a misperceived body image. However, body dysmorphic disorder is not just about a misperception of body shape. Patients may also be convinced, for example, that they suffer from a disfiguring skin disease, smell unpleasantly or have scars that are objectively not there. Often, however, it is also about the overall shape of the body. Men tend to feel lacking muscle mass, too slender and thin. Women, on the other hand, feel that they are too fat and do not correspond to the common beauty ideals. However, both sexes are affected to about equal extent.
People who suffer from this disorder are very restricted in their everyday social life. They constantly worry about their appearance or try to get rid of the supposed flaws by all means. Anabolic steroids or cosmetic surgery are often the next step.
A recent Australian study published in Psikohumaniora: Jurnal Penelitian Psikologi has now looked at the extent to which social media reinforces body dysmorphic disorder. However, for this to happen, a driving factor had to be present in the patients: perfectionism. Because of this, the study examined the relationship between the three perfectionism dimensions and the development of body dysmorphic disorder through social media use in young women. 385 women aged 18–25 years were interviewed using the Body Dysmorphic Disorder Screening Scale, Social Media Pressure Scale and the Almost Perfect Scale-Revised (APS-R). Additionally, some open-ended questions were distributed online through various social media. “The BDD tendency model tested using structural equation modeling has a good fit with the data (χ2/df = .019, RMSEA = .001, CFI = 1.00) and shows that the role of social media pressure in women’s BDD tendency was fully mediated through the discrepancy dimension of perfectionism,” the study authors concluded.
“It may seem that body image stereotypes in social media are responsible for serious body image disorders such as body dysmorphic disorder, but this research shows that social media alone cannot cause such serious problems. Instead, they play an indirect role in predicting dysmorphophobia,” says study author Dr. Nada Ibrahim.
But the negative impact of media content consumption on young women’s body image begins much earlier. Accordingly, a recent study examined whether – and if so, how – the design of characters in video games, movies and TV series affects the body image of young girls. For this, 792 children under the age of 10 were surveyed. The researchers were able to determine that dissatisfaction with one’s own facial features correlates with consumption of movies and video games. Dissatisfaction with one’s own body and an overall affection of their self-image was only seen when video games were consumed – this effect did not occur in boys of the same age.
“Sadly, girls are subjected to body-shape pressure by the people around them (friends and family) from an early age. The media increases this effect by normalizing body standards: beauty is white, thin and feminine,” says study author J. Roberto Sánchez-Reina, researcher at the UPF Department of Information and Communication Technologies. Although some games are now trying to break with the depiction of the perfect body type, there is still a lot of room for improvement. “Many of them still conform to body standards. Until these depictions, as expressions of our language and culture, stop simplifying the diversity of women’s bodies, girls will continue to aspire to fit within these body standards,” Sánchez-Reina said. Another aspect is that media portrayals of female characters often focus purely on physical aspects. Young girls are taught at an early age that all that counts is their beauty – and that beauty is standardized.
“In terms of how the characters they are exposed to affect their self-image, an effect can only be seen in children who play video games, with no effect as a result of watching television,” the authors said. But why do video games in particular have such a great influence on the body image of young girls? This is due to the amount of attention paid to a video game compared to, for example, a TV series. Also, the nature of the video game medium is much more immersive than a movie or series could ever be. You don’t watch a character do something – you do it yourself.
To intercept at least parts of this negative body image development, different body images should be shown as well as talking to the children themselves about the unrealistic depictions of these very bodies – because they understand much more about it than many adults think. Study author Mireia Montaña-Blasco agrees: “We must highlight body diversity, promote self-esteem and fight against social pressure to conform to specific beauty ideals. It is similarly important to teach them digital skills,” she says and adds that “educating them about nutrition and explaining that they must do exercise on a regular basis, as this will help them feel good both physically and mentally” is also critically important.
Image Source: Gaspar Uhas, unsplash
