From buccal fat to cellulite, anything innate to humans that can be made into a problem will create a market for the solution, says Guardian columnist Zoe Williams
From buccal fat to cellulite, anything innate to humans that can be made into a problem will create a market for the solutionPhotograph: Daisy-Daisy/AlamyPhotograph: Daisy-Daisy/Alamywas released last week showing the level of body image distress among young people, its focal point was social media: what was driving 75% of 12-year-olds to “dislike their bodies” and feel “embarrassed by the way they look”? Why was this rising to an astounding 80% of young people by the time they reached 18? Is...
We could say with relative confidence that social media and more general turmoil are acting as accelerants, and also that going from childhood to adulthood has never been easy. But we won’t get to the root of the particular body disgust that girls experience until we admit the conditions they’re swimming in. They were not invented by Mark Zuckerberg, and blaming a timeless patriarchy is too general.
So you have this tripod effect: the explicit message to girls is “don’t try to be thin, try to be healthy”; the implicit message is “thin is actually better than beautiful, thin is beauty, femininity and discipline combined”; and finally the high-pitched screaming of our collective lizard brain: “Fat is disgusting and undignified.” Telling girls not to worry about their body shape is like telling them not to worry about being liked.
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