Daily Times

Remarks on someone’s physical appearance like ‘fat’, ‘ugly’, ‘dark-skinned’ and ‘too thin’ among many others may seem as a light joke to some, but no one realises that such ‘jokes’ have larger consequences and incredibly lower someone’s self-esteem.

Majority, knowingly or unknowingly, does so not understanding the extent to which these remarks take a toll on one’s mental health, and  which can lead them to depression, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts.

Even though both men and women are subjected to this disturbing face of the society, the frequency of affected women is more than that of men. This is because over the years, there has been objectification of women. They are ought to look like a model of beauty and elegance and anyone who does not match such expectations is under great scrutiny and criticism of the society.

The media itself plays a major role in socialising the people into “beauty freaks.” A sociologist, Wolf suggests that the images of women by the media, especially the print and advertising media, present an ideal beauty through which they transmit strong ideological messages that women need to treat their bodies as a project for constant improvement.

An article published in 2009, written by Phoebe R Apaegyei, talks about how the fashion industry is promoting “size zero” and how the media has a great input in the cause. The article also claims how media has linked slimness to happiness and has mentioned various researchers and their opinions on the matter. Tebbel claims that the magazines for teenage girls concentrate heavily on beauty and slimness.

The ‘Just the Woman’ report supports the observation that the media is often very critical of celebrities who put on some weight and actively encourages girls to compete with one another to achieve ideal thinness. This negatively impacts on the self-esteem of young women. Orbach argues that the exposure to such images and content can lead to a period in a girl’s life where self-regard and self- efficiency are in decline and the tendency of social comparison is at its peak.

A study found out that one-third of inpatients adolescents at Bradley Hospital had problematic body image and concerns, and these patients were more severely ill than other inpatients in number of important domains. Specifically those with shape/weight and colour preoccupations had a higher rate of depression, anxiety and suicide than those with no body image problems.

Due to the constant snarky remarks, many patients are eventually led to eating disorders (such as bulimia and anorexia) and body dimorphic disorder (BDD).

In the modern world, it is necessary to create awareness on matters like mental illness and causes of it, which includes physical appearance. Also, we need to have broad perspective and acceptance of all body types and colours as all are beautiful.