Apparently women are now rejecting the Brazilian Butt Lift! But new insecurities continue about our bodies. In a world of plastic surgery, fillers and photoshop, today it often feels hard not to feel insecure about the features you were born with.
Rather than simply succumb to insecurity, surely one of the questions of our age is why don’t we like our bodies anymore?
Suspect number one is social media. Thousands of online articles blame social media and especially social media influencers. You can find ongoing online petitions to stop Instagram from promoting and sponsoring posts that “undermine” body confidence. But these rise then falter. One petition, for example, reached over 41 thousand signatures, but the last update was seven years ago.
Even some influencers have supported a potential crackdown. In a survey by The Drum and HypeAuditor, of the 28 influencers asked their opinion, nearly 80% said “some form of [photo] editing regulation was necessary” and 70% were optimistic “that a policy banning editing would help tackle social media harms”.
It seems that many blame social media – but despite the warnings we keep using it.
And now, say many, the government must step in to save us from ourselves. Will that really give us our self-belief back?
Another view is the argument that we as humans are born with insecurities. In this thread, there is a debate over whether someone can be born insecure.
Sure we know that insecurity is part of being human. But isn’t the question how people deal with it: stop it growing or let it grow out of control?
Indeed we might once have thought that men would tough out their self-doubt. But it seems men are now insecure too. In a survey of 394 men, more than 4 in 5 men (80.7%) struggle with anxiety around their body image. This is more than the figure for women of 75%!
What other reasons might there be? Many see peer pressure or the constant comparison with those closest to you in the offline world to be the issue.
How can we be happy in our own skin?
I don’t have the answer.
But I do think a good answer would be to start working on our Love and Pride.
