Beauty Demands

  When you think of models, you probably think of long legs, designer clothing, and flawless figures. When I think of models, I think of eating disorders, self-doubt, and an everlasting feeling of dread and isolation.   (Photo by Rob Crawford) I started modelling almost ten years ago in my home country of Australia. I never wanted to be a model, I didn’t care about fashion or parties or “being cool”, but I wasn’t opposed to trying something new. I loved modelling in Australia for the most part, I did a lot of exciting jobs and I started to feel more confident and happy with who I was growing to be. Then, around the age of 22 I decided I’d move to England, I have family here and I thought I could try modelling in the European market.    I was unprepared. I visited most of the top agencies in London, and all but one rejected me. The one agency that didn’t had one condition - I had to lose weight. In Australia, I was encouraged to look lean and “fresh faced”, but th...

As the UK moves slowly out of lockdown, outdoor sports should restart in two weeks, so we revisit this interesting research from 2019 on body image in women who engage in sport and exercise.   Women who take part in sport and exercise tend to have more positive body image than other women (e.g. Hausenblas & Fallon, 2006). Positive body image in women who exercise has been linked with a number of factors including relatively greater focus on body performance rather than aesthetics, the fact that exercised bodies tend to be closer to the mainstream cultural ideal in terms of body fat levels and muscle tone, and psychosocial benefits of sport, such as autonomy and competence, that have been linked to more positive body image (e.g. Petrie & Greenleaf, 2012). Although women who take part in sport and exercise tend to be more positive about their bodies than other women, this does not mean that they do not have body image concerns, and body image concerns have been reported i...

  On 19 th February 2021, the #EverydayLookism campaign hosted the first of its live-streamed panel discussions . In this event – Body Image As A Public Health Issue – Professor Heather Widdows , Dr Antonis Kousoulis (The Mental Health Foundation) and Dr Luke Evans MP discussed why we need to take body image seriously, and reframe it as a matter of public health. The panellists began by explaining why body image is important enough to be a public health concern. They argued that a focus on body image can have significant mental health implications (such as anxiety and depression) and can also have wider effects on physical health and everyday life (for example, preventing young people speaking up in class or engaging in physical exercise).  For example, Heather cited the 2016 Girls’ Attitude Survey by Girlguiding that showed that 53% of girls between 7-10 years old think that they have to be ‘perfect’ most or some of the time, and this number rises to 84% of girls betw...