American women are, on average, dissatisfied with their bodies. Twenty-five years ago, almost half of all American women reported that overall, they do not like their bodies. [1] So many women were reporting being unhappy with their bodies that a term was coined, “normative discontent.” And no wonder! So many messages we receive each day are telling us how to be thinner, how to be more fit, how to be more attractive. The message underneath is always: “your body is not good enough as it is.” Unfortunately, body discontent remains at similar high levels for women today, and has been getting worse for boys and men, too. [2] In today’s America, it is the norm, not the exception, to be unhappy with one’s body.
Rising Awareness Of The Problem
Since the 1990s, there have been many new waves in our society that push back against this normative discontent. There has been the body positivity movement, proclaiming that all bodies are beautiful. There has been widening awareness of eating disorders. This includes rising knowledge about what eating disorders are, how they are different from dieting, and the horrors of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. There is a rising fat positivity movement, too, raising awareness of the extensive cost of discrimination borne by people in larger bodies. And increasingly, science has been supporting that poor body image is a problem. Research into the impact of disliking one’s body has found that there are serious consequences for physical health and mental health. Unsurprisingly, lower body satisfaction is linked to developing eating disorders. And unfortunately, lower body image is also linked to less intuitive issues, including:
- depressive episodes
- using alcohol and drugs
- starting smoking
- higher risk of suicide attempts [3]
Having dissatisfaction with one’s body is not only unenjoyable in the moment. It also puts you and your loved ones’ general mental and physical well-being at risk, too.
A Starting Place For Fostering A Healthier View of Your Body
What can you do about this? The good news is, you are reading this post, so you are already more aware than most people about the problem. Well done you! Next, I invite you to consider how much time you spend on a given day, thinking about food, or your body, or dieting. Let yourself consider how much time and energy you are spending on these topics. Then I encourage you to ask yourself, what might I rather be spending that time and energy on? Maybe your family, your relationship, your hobbies. Noticing what caring about your body has cost you is an important first step in having a healthier relationship with the only body you will ever get to live in.
If you are interested in learning more, and trying to have a healthier relationship with your body, or being a positive force for loved ones who may struggle with food or their bodies, consider continuing the conversation with a therapist.
[1]Thompson, J. K., Heinberg, L. J., Altabe, M. N., & Tantleff-Dunn, S. (1999). Exacting beauty: Theory, assessment, and treatment of body image disturbance. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
[2] Martini, M. C. S., Assumpção, D. D., Barros, M. B. D. A., Mattei, J., & Barros Filho, A. D. A. (2022). Prevalence of body weight dissatisfaction among adolescents: a systematic review. Revista Paulista de Pediatria, 41, e2021204.
[3] Howe, L. J., Trela-Larsen, L., Taylor, M., Heron, J., Munafò, M. R., & Taylor, A. E. (2017). Body mass index, body dissatisfaction and adolescent smoking initiation. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 178, 143–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.04.008