Media and advertising blamed as report finds that half UK population have negative body image
Half of the UKs population, including girls as young as five, have a negative image of their own bodies according to a new parliamentary report.
Drawn up by MPs and children’s charity YMCA the report found that a half of girls and a third of boys aged 14 had been on a diet to change their body shape.
With the media, advertising and celebrity culture saturated with images of the “body ideal” many are now increasingly worried about their own weight and appearance, with all the negative mental and physical problems that entails.
This has led to a rise of nearly 20% in cosmetic surgery rates since 2008, which the report blamed on “advertising and irresponsible marketing ploys.”
To combat such trends the report’s authors are urging doctors to ditch the “inaccurate” and discredited body mass index and called on advertisers to move away from size zero models and digitally enhanced pictures to reflect "consumer desire for authenticity and diversity."
Rosi Prescott of Central YMCA said: "It's clear there's something seriously wrong in society when children as a young as five are worrying about their appearance, based on the messages they are seeing all around them.
"The findings of the report are shocking – body image has become more important in our culture than health and children are mimicking their parents' concerns about appearance.”