In a world where accepting your body can mean contending with social pressure, stereotypes and stigma, the prevalence of body image concerns is persistent in Australia. Pharmacy assistants can be role models within communities by promoting healthy and balanced behaviour around body image.
It’s important to remember that social pressures and stereotypes affect people of all genders and ages and those from all cultural backgrounds, but greater prevalence is reported among girls and women and those living in western society, says Butterfly Foundation Head of Prevention Danni Rowlands.
Data released in 2021 by the Foundation, Australia’s national support charity for eating disorders and body image issues, indicated that more than 40 per cent of Australian adults were dissatisfied with their appearance, and 73 per cent wished they could change the way they look.1
These statistics demonstrate that there’s plenty to be done to dismantle harmful attitudes towards body image, and assist the community in finding support.
“These numbers are now likely to be much higher, with body image concerns, depression, anxiety and eating disorder symptoms increasing by more than 50 per cent during the pandemic,” Ms Rowlands said.
“Body dissatisfaction is a significant risk factor in engaging in disordered eating, which can lead to serious mental health concerns.”
Diet culture
Women and girls often absorb societal and cultural influences and internalise negative attitudes, Ms Rowlands says, which can lead to them engaging in self-objectification behaviour – a process in which people view themselves as physical objects first and humans second, leading to valuing the body’s appearance over its function.2
Self-objectification is damaging and is associated with internalising negative body ideals, she adds.
“Objectification theory involves an understanding of dominant sociocultural influences, suggesting that girls and women are acculturated to internalise observers’ perspectives of their bodies,” she said.
“Within a culture where women are sexually objectified, women are socialised to engage in self-objectification. Studies of men and boys have found similar self-objectifying behaviour, with media consumption associated with the internalisation of appearance ideals, body dissatisfaction and the pursuit of leanness and muscularity.”
According to Ms Rowlands, social pressures and stereotypes perpetuate diet culture, which endorses unrealistic and unattainable body ideals, from which profits are made.
“We live in an image-obsessed world that’s heavily influenced by diet culture,” she said, pointing to the “thin ideal, which endorses the weight-worth message, and continues to promote unrealistic and unattainable body ideals – not exclusively but mostly thin [for women and girls], and muscular and lean [for males]”.
Ms Rowlands continued: “Research and studies report that the more a person internalises these body and appearance ideals, the more likely they are to experience body dissatisfaction [poor body image]. The more dissatisfied a person is with their body, the more at risk they are of engaging in unhealthy practices and behaviours with eating and exercise, such as restrictive eating and extreme exercise.”
Weight stigma
Two in three Australians are considered overweight or obese, but obesity is still stigmatised, according to La Trobe University’s national survey into attitudes to and experiences of weight stigma.3
Ms Rowlands says weight stigma derived from negative attitudes and stereotypes attached to body size is pervasive and commonly experienced by those with larger bodies, who also face discrimination based on their size.
“This [discrimination] can be experienced in healthcare, workplaces, schools and other education settings, in retail and hospitality and inter-personal relationships,” she said. “It can significantly affect a person’s self-esteem and self-worth and can be a barrier, for some people, in the way they engage and participate in their life.”
Weight stigma and bias can also be internalised, which is linked to a high level of body dissatisfaction and poorer quality of life, she adds.
“Due to the pervasive and engrained nature of this, people in large bodies may also experience internalisation of weight stigma and weight bias, and this can negatively impact body image,” Ms Rowlands said.
“Internalised weight stigma refers to the extent to which [people] engage in self-stigma, applying negative weight-based stereotypes to themselves, and unfortunately, this can limit the way they engage in their life.
“Societal messages and broad public health information surrounding body size and high weight reinforce this stigma.
“Research shows stronger internalised weight stigma predicts greater eating disorder psychopathology, higher levels of body dissatisfaction and poorer quality of life.”
Fostering positive body image
Role modelling positive body image is a powerful way to curb the social stigma and contribute to a future of greater positive body image and inclusivity.
“Our body image is one of the most complex, long-lasting and important relationships [we] will ever have in our lifetime, and it’s imperative people realise body image concerns can impact anyone, of any age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and socioeconomic status,” Ms Rowlands said.
“With the foundations for a positive body image beginning early in childhood, intervening early is critical to help young people to develop a healthy relationship with their bodies, eating and physical activity.”
Butterfly Foundation seeks to support healthier relationships and positive body image with early intervention through the Butterfly Body Bright program, described as Australia’s first whole-of-primary-school body image program, which aims to make it easier for educators to support their students to develop a positive relationship with food, exercise and the body.
“Butterfly Body Bright offers a whole-school, evidence-informed approach that provides everything schools need to upskill staff, deliver age-appropriate lessons to students, ensure families are resourced, and to foster a supportive and inclusive school culture – where children, in all bodies, can thrive,” Ms Rowlands said.
“Butterfly encourages every primary school to register for Body Bright before August 2023, for three years’ free access to the program.”
She continued: “Role modelling healthy and balanced attitudes and behaviours around body image, balanced eating and exercise can positively impact everyone.”
This behaviour can be modelled by pharmacy assistants within their communities, with ways to foster it including:
- Challenging internalised beliefs and attitudes about appearance, weight, shape and size and working towards celebrating and accepting people in all body shapes and sizes. Research shows following diverse people of all shapes and sizes on social media can help ‘recalibrate’ what is considered to be a ‘normal’ body type.
- Actively challenging internalised fatphobia/weight stigma, appearance-based comments and unrealistic body and appearance ideals.
- Being the voice of reason. If people around you are engaging in unhelpful diet, appearance or body talk, let them know there are much more interesting things to discuss, and divert the conversation, but acknowledge that their language is a response to living in a diet culture world – they require compassion and kindness, not judgement or shame.
- Educating yourself about diet culture, the harmful effects of restrictive dieting, and recognising its pervasive nature in the media, advertising and social media.
- Watching/changing/being mindful of language towards bodies, foods and appearance, and avoiding judging anyone based on their weight, shape or appearance. It’s not only the way that you talk about your own body that counts. How you talk about others is critical, too.
- Avoiding using language that increases feelings of guilt or shame around eating or weight, such as ‘bad’, ‘junk’, or ‘toxic’. Use morally neutral language – for example, ‘lollies’ instead of ‘sugar’.
Butterfly’s National Helpline for confidential and free counselling: 1800 ED HOPE (1800 33 4673). Chat online at butterfly.org.au/get-support/chat-online/ or email support@butterfly.org.au.
References
- Butterfly Foundation. ‘Insights into body esteem’. 2021. org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Report-insights-into-body-esteem.pdf
- Daniels EA et al. ‘Becoming an object: A review of self-objectification in girls’. 2020. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32470822/
- La Trobe University. ‘Weight stigma’. 2021. edu.au/news/announcements/2021/weight-stigma-2020-2021-national-survey
This feature was originally published in the March issue of Retail Pharmacy Assistants e-magazine.
