Call to Media to Stop Promoting Unhealthy Body Image

The Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK is thinking of an initiative that should change media for the better and, at the same time, make it so that many young, impressionable people will improve their body image. The initiative is now seeking support from the government and should imply the inclusion of more diverse body shapes to put an end to the glamorization of the stick-thin role model, OnMedica informs.

It’s not a first that we hear that the media is partly responsible for the skinny / weight obsession that is slowly consuming women (and men too, but to a lesser degree) all over the world. Its influence, combined with the fashion industry promoting certain sizes and showbiz people praising said standards, is making it so that it almost seems OK to lose weight by severe dieting and have a low self-esteem because of the inability to attain these (unattainable) dimensions.

“The college wants a new editorial code to be drawn up that would encourage the media to use images of people with more diverse body shapes, and help people feel more positive about their own bodies. Members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Eating Disorders Section say they are increasingly concerned about the harmful influence of the media on people’s body image and self-esteem – and are calling on the government to establish a new forum to tackle the issue. The forum should include representatives from the media and advertising agencies, regulatory bodies, eating disorder experts, eating disorder organisations and politicians. The college is being backed in their call by the eating disorders charity beat,” OnMedica says.

“The aims of the forum should be to collaboratively develop an ethical editorial code that realistically addresses the damaging portrayal of eating disorders, raises awareness of unrealistic visual imagery created through airbrushing and digital enhancement, and also addresses the skewed and erroneous content of magazines. There is a growing body of research that shows the media plays a part in the development of eating disorder symptoms – particularly in adolescents and young people. Eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, are serious mental illnesses. Although biological and genetic factors play an important role in the development of these disorders, psychological and social factors are also significant,” consultant psychiatrist Dr. Adrienne Key adds for the same publication.

The initiative should address issues in three main “areas of concern” as regards the way the media offers unrealistic images of women. One has to do with unrealistic imagery – using photos of skinny girls and women; the other with unbalanced articles – articles on diets that say nothing about long-term effects and look at weight loss as something that should be of concern only for a short while; and the inaccurate portrayal of eating disorders – which encourages drastic weight loss and treats it like a trifle rather than as a mental issue.