Unrealistic Expectations

Unrealistic Expectations

Date: 21/10/20

By: Elise Condon, Yr. 9 MSM student

 

It has become the normal for teenagers across the globe for many years. Scrolling through Instagram after school, in the car, when bored and in every spare minute. I myself can admit that I am guilty of the same behaviour. If not Instagram, then Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and the countless other social media platforms available to us. When opening Instagram, teenagers are immediately presented with a multitude of posts from their friends, associates and celebrities, some of which promote a positive aura and an inspirational viewpoint, but many of which have a damaging, harmful effect on the self-esteem and body confidence of the young users that view them daily.

                                                                                     Source: BNI Treatment Centre, 2018 

Source: (Medium.com, 2017) 

In a recent interview, celebrity and actor Blake Lively shared her comments and personal experience with beauty manipulation and photoshop with celebrity and model Gigi Hadid. Blake stated that “on top of that (gyms, trainers and healthy food), 99.9% of the time the images are Photoshopped. I’m guilty myself,”. If that was not convincing enough, these shocking real-life facts tell the rest of the story.

78% of 17-year-old girls are unhappy with their bodies.

42% of girls in grades 1-3, that’s right, 7-year olds, want to be thinner.

Most alarming of all, teenage girls are reportedly “more afraid of gaining weight than getting cancer, losing their parents, or nuclear war.” (Gina Vaynshteyn, 2014).

And it is majorly due to the unrealistic expectations placed upon them from social media.

 

Every day there’s a new post. Gorgeous celebrities and influencers putting up the perfect photo that is adored by fans everywhere. What many of us don’t realise, is that in most cases, we are idolizing an unrealistic, edited or photoshopped snapshot in time of that person’s life that in reality, looks completely different. We see these images and although some of us may know deep down that it’s not real, we still long and aspire to look exactly like those women, for example the photoshopped image of Beyonce below. The media tends to display one stereotypical image of beauty and body shape, leading teenagers to believe that if they don’t match that particular mold or fit for beauty, they aren’t as deserving of love or happiness as the influencers, celebrities or ordinary women who do fit that “perfect mold”.

Beyonce before and after photoshop. Source: (Viktorija Gabulaite, 2016)

 

This new reality we live in is having a destructive effect on the Human Dignity of many teenagers. The Catholic Social Teaching of Human Dignity states that each person has value and are worthy of great respect and that their dignity should never be taken away. But what we are being exposed to everyday is doing just that. Making teenagers believe that they do not deserve the same love, respect and treatment as the celebrities and influencers they view on social media who fit the “ideal beauty standard”. This strips their self-esteem, confidence and perspective and is detrimental to mental health. It has become a very real issue and action needs to be taken to reduce these degrading impacts sooner rather than later.

 

The Royal Society for Public Health has called for social media platforms to help combat young users’ feelings of inadequacy and anxiety by placing a warning on images that have been digitally manipulated. This initiative is aimed at helping users to not take the images they see as real and achievable. This is just one action working with the Catholic Social Teaching of Human Dignity to restore back the feeling of self-worth and value amongst all teenagers.

A more recent action has arisen from popular tik tok star Sienna Mae Gomez (see image below) who uses her platform and following to try and shift the narrative around body image on the app. She regularly posts videos of her dancing and having fun with her waistband pulled down to emphasize how her stomach sometimes jiggles. She avidly reinforces the message that it is normal to have rolls and that all bodies are perfect. She is one of few influencers who aren’t afraid to put themselves out there and spread body positivity, carrying the message that many of the perfect seeming people we see online just know the right angles and lighting to make them look that way. We need more people like her in the online world right now!

 

                                                  (Source: Sara Belcher, 2020)

 

You can read more about Sienna’s story here.

And read about Blake Lively’s interview with Gigi Hadid here.

Now it is over to you. How many of the photos you see each day on social media do you think are photoshopped? What can you do to help support yourself and other teenagers to feel confident in themselves and their bodies? Following causes and positive role models like Sienna is a great start and other actions such as resisting the urge to photoshop yourself or convince others to is another step in the right direction!