I Am Beautiful, No Matter What They Say!

Does the title sound familiar? It’s the chorus of a popular song by Christina Aguilera. Sadly, many people, especially women during adolescence, do not relate to this. In the U.S., 69-84% of women report being dissatisfied with their bodies. 

How we evaluate our appearance is heavily influenced by today’s media and also peer and familial relationships. A huge problem with this is that media is portraying insane body ideals, mostly unattainable for the majority of the population. This leads to many people having negative body images, which in turn lead to unhealthy eating habits or even eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. 

As it is very important to counteract this epidemic of hatred towards our bodies, researchers are investigating ways to promote body satisfaction. One study focused on the relationship between resilience and body dissatisfaction. Resilience describes the ability to cope with difficulties and past research showed that feminist attitudes allowed women to maintain positive body images, as they feel less pressured by society. 

In the study, 177 female college students were asked to fill out questionnaires measuring resiliency and body dissatisfaction. It was found, that the more resilient a person was, the less body image dissatisfaction they showed. This result gives rise to the potential of resilience in counteracting body image dissatisfaction. 

The findings stress the importance of interventions promoting resilience and body image satisfaction for young people in schools and colleges. Hopefully, by doing this, more people will become body positive and practice self-love, because “life’s too short to be unkind to yourself“. 

REFERENCE

McGrath, R. J., Julie, W., & Caron, R. M. (2009). The relationship between resilience and body image in college women. The Internet Journal of Health.