A crisis in body-confidence and a blueprint for what needs to change
Following the publication of our report on Body Image in partnership with THO, Andrew “Bernie” Bernard of Innovative Enterprise was moved to write a blog about it. His key takeaways were:
Results revealed an overall crisis in body-confidence with men and boys mainly feeling "not positive" about their bodies, and women and girls mainly feeling "negative".
The survey found that social media, cultural expectations, and racial identity all play a role in the pressure to conform to certain physical appearance standards.
In the UK, the highest contributing factor to wanting to change one’s appearance was social media. This includes references to height, muscularity, thinness, hair thickness/colour, facial hair and skin lightness/tone.
Young people surveyed want more done by schools and workplaces to promote body positivity.
Individuals should be open about there being no such thing as a “perfect” body; marketing increasingly relies on people's disappointment with their appearance so they can profit from it.
You can read Bernie’s full blog here.
