**Trigger Warnings: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, talk of body image.
By: Sonal Punj Edited by Raghvi Sethi
A couple of months ago, I went to look for a present for my sister. It was Christmas time. Lights adorned the walls while the billboards illuminated the towering Christmas tree. I saw Zendaya smiling with her favorite Louis Vuitton It-bag. I picked up my pace a little, looking for the nearest Sephora, and when I finally made it, Kendall Jenner was showing off her washboard abs on the beach right above me — the light from the synthetic sand casting a glow over me.
Twenty minutes later, when I walked out with a Telescopic mascara in tow, a family of four walked in, blocking my path. What I assume to be the father and son had lingered behind and eventually slipped out of the store, while the mother made a beeline for the Rare Beauty section. Her daughter — who looked to be around ten years old — had stayed, lingering in front of a synthetic image of a model, who was, in all of her exuberance, posing with a can of spray tan. The little girl stared openly at the model as if she had never seen such poreless skin. Then, she turned to the mirror with pained eyes, examining her figure.
The billboards, the advertisements, the fad diets — it is not a secret that this is the crux of American marketing. Growing up as a teenage girl in America, this has always been my world — a world I never questioned. However, when we take a look at the questions that drive the beauty industry, and thus, our mindsets, the truth begins to look much less harmless.
“How do I look better?”
“How can I be better?
These are the questions everyone constantly asks — a question that companies try to answer through facial lotions that claim to freeze time and diet plans that’ll mold you into the body that society deems as perfect.
However, as I looked at the little girl, scrutinizing her figure with such disdainful eyes, I realized that I can’t say that I definitively know someone untouched by the pressure to fit into the world of models and magazines, because it is our world.
A world that is far more destructive than we think it is.
The Guise of “Self-Love”
“I am such a disgusting, fat pig,” a young college student wrote on Reddit, “I feel like an ugly troll in a sea of gorgeous, feminine, innocent looking girls. I feel unlovable because of my hideous face.” This is supposed to be the age of self-love, diversity, and body positivity, not the age of 17th-century Italian women who put belladonna to enhance their eyes or the Victorian socialites who ingested tapeworms to eat them up inside out. Those ideas are supposed to be a part of the past, not of our society that has claimed to embrace self-love. But that also begs the question that no one is willing to answer: Why does the beauty industry truly exist? And why was I not jarred when I saw that young girl compare her body to that of a model?
The prevalent thirst to be perceived as visually pleasing is the bane for many young individuals' lives, who are still trying to navigate their way through the world. It’s a thirst written off as a commonplace insecurity — a frivolous champagne problem driven by vanity and insecurity. To many, teenage insecurity is just a phase, eating disorders a minority. But the truth is that humans are driven to find acceptance in their community, and when the standards get tighter, the chase to fit the standards grows more desperate. More dangerous.
A Look at the Harsh Truth — And the Even Harsher Numbers
A study published by research expert John Elfclein concludes that around 400,000 people suffer from eating disorders: One of the most detrimental diseases to one’s body, mind, and soul.
Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa may be classified as extreme psychological disorders and as defined as the deep-rooted tendency to either stop consuming food or go through periods of binging and purging. They may weaken the bones, ruin teeth, or muddle our senses. Eating disorders can affect various brain regions involved in emotional processing, such as parts of the cingulate cortex, the prefrontal cortex, and the amygdala, among others.
It’s no secret that they have the potential to be absolutely devastating, almost always either caused by and/or exacerbated by society’s pressure to fit its definition of beauty. It’s not a product of vain insecurity, nor is it a phase. It’s life-threatening.
And it’s only getting worse from here. Over 28 million people have been reported to have been affected with eating disorders — a hard reality check from the premise that these individuals are simply an unfortunate minority. According to a report from data company Trilliant Health, hospital visits caused by eating disorders have risen to a whopping 107.4% from 2018 to the final quarter of 2022. The mounting pressure to be “beautiful” is laughed in the face by those who profit off of it.
“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” Kate Moss once said in her 2009 interview with Women’s Wear Magazine.
When confronted about Victoria's Secret's consistent lack of size inclusivity in a 2018 interview with Vogue, Ed Razek, the chief marketing officer at the time, brushed off the concerns, simply emphasizing the maintenance of the so-called "fantasy" created by their models.
These words aren’t just harmless comments. The worst is not simply a bit of transient insecurity. This trivialization of the effects of our beauty standards has led to the daunting rise in self-hatred, plastic surgery, and the growing thirst to change who we are. We see it in the rising stats for eating disorders. We see it in the burning hatred that young people have for their own bodies. And the truth is that if we continue to ignore the effects of the physical standards imposed on us, we will continue to see the numbers of eating disorders spike. We will continue to be witness to the insidious drive to change yourself that leads to permanent damage, both in the minds and in the bodies of generations yet to come?
Is that the fate we want to condemn to future generations? Is the question “what can I do to make myself look better?” really one that we want on the forefront of our children’s minds?
Our Duty to Society
It’s easy to shake our heads and say that we’re not “responsible” for others' insecurities, that society doesn’t owe anything to anyone. However, that’s just not true.
We have a duty to those suffering from the standards that are collectively pushed onto us — and we subconsciously push onto others.
We have a duty to those who break themselves to meet the societal standards of beauty.
We have a duty to that little girl at Sephora who was comparing her figure to one of the many models of beauty in our society.
We have a duty to the next generations to come, to make the future a better place.
And most importantly, we have a duty to ourselves; to understand that our bodies are beautiful in a world that profits off of our inadequacy.
Tread carefully through the chaos of the beauty world. Don’t let yourself succumb to the feelings of worthlessness brought on by unattainable images of perfection. Mitski once said, “I spent all my teenage years being obsessed with beauty, and I’m very resentful about it and I’m very angry. I had so much intelligence and energy and drive, and instead of using that to study more, or instead of pursuing something or going out and learning about or changing the world, I directed all that fire inward, and burnt myself up.” Look beyond the ideals that society exhorts and understand that the only person who can appreciate the depth of your real beauty is you, not anyone else. Sources Jain, Sanjula. "Eating Disorders Among Child and Adolescent Patients Incrementally Spiked Following the Pandemic's Onset." Trilliant Health, 7 May 2023, www.trillianthealth.com/insights/the-compass/ eating-disorders-among-child-and-adolescent-patients-incrementally-spiked-followi ng-the-pandemics-onset. Accessed 29 July 2023. 00 New
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