Beauty Demands

Photo by  Sam Moqadam  on  Unsplash There has been a huge growth in the use of non-surgical cosmetic procedures over the last decade. [1] The use of such procedures is by no means only confined to the older person concerned at staving off the rapid onset of age; instead today the demands of “beauty” can be seen as much more pervasive. [2] Over the last few years there has been an increased interest by younger people, including teenagers, in the use of cosmetic procedures. This has been exacerbated by the use of social media and the rise of the “influencer” in an Instagram world. At the same time such a rise in use has been accompanied with concerns in relation to their safety. Risks in relation to Botox include such things as infections, breathing difficulties and double-vision; in the case of fillers scarring, infection and blocked facial blood vessels. [3] Concerns have also been expressed regarding the psychological impact of the use of Botox and fillers, for example, in relati

With reports suggesting body image concerns have increased over lockdown, we republish this 2017 post from Nadia Craddock on body appreciation (and how to improve yours).  We need to clear something up when it comes to body positivity. Body positive hashtags are all over the internet. On Instagram alone (at time of writing – July 2017) there are over three million posts tagged with #bodypositive, nearly a million with #bodypositivity, and almost exactly 350,000 posts with #bopo. Don’t get me wrong, it’s BEYOND exciting to think of so much self-love online against the backdrop of diet- and selfie-culture. And I’m totally here for the body positive movement and community, especially at a time where young people report to feeling under more pressure than ever before to look perfect . However, I feel like, occasionally, there is some confusion as to what the term ‘body positivity’ actually means - especially *eye-roll* when certain brands engage in the space for a heartbeat because it’s ‘o