How social pressures contribute to eating disorders

Okay, so in all honesty, I hesitated writing a blog about beauty standards just because I feel like so many people assume that eating disorders have to do with someone not liking the way that they look, and that’s just not the case. Eating disorders are so much bigger than this. An eating disorder is a true mental illness that has been shown to have a major genetic component and are often stimulated by multiple psychological and environmental factors.

So, a lot of what I try to share on this blog and on social media is the fact that anyone can face an eating disorder and this can look like a lot of different things (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, ARFID, etc.). On my Instagram account, I do share my personal story of an eating disorder, which occurred as a combination of genetic components, PTSD, and was triggered by quitting my sport when I was an athlete in college.

So that I hope that if you know me and follow me, you know that I think eating disorders are about much more than body insecurities and beauty standards. But, I think we still need to have a conversation about how beauty standards do impact the way that people view themselves, their bodies, and their worth.

So what are today’s beauty standards? (Note: I am speaking from a very Western point of view, having been raised in the US). What I was taught from a young age was that women should eat less than men, should try to be as small as possible, and that being thin was attractive. I’d say that now, we are finally coming into an age of more body positivity (for example, I’m encouraged that we are circulating body positive information with children more), but I would still say there’s definitely a focus on this thin ideal.

I see this a lot with celebrities. It’s become a typical narrative to see someone become famous and all of a sudden lose a lot of weight. There’s clearly something about our society that makes us feel that it is “good” to weigh less. And with social media, it’s even worse because we come into contact with these celebrities and influencers on a day-to-day basis through their posts. We’re able to see exactly what they eat in a day, their workout routine, and that doesn’t even include all of the edited photos that they show us.

What is the result of putting thinness on a pedestal? Disordered eating and eating disorders.

I remember right before I developed my eating disorder scrolling on social media one day and feeling that my body wasn’t “good enough.” I had always had a lean yet athletic build, and I had put on a lot of muscle during my college sport. Once I quit my sport and saw how women on social media looked “more feminine” and thinner than myself, I felt like I needed to change my body. And while this comparison to the thin ideal didn’t cause my eating disorder, it definitely contributed towards it.

As I was doing research for this blog, some statistics baffled me. Did you know that 42% of 1st through 3rd grade girls want to be thinner? 1st through 3rd grade!!! That’s literally like six through nine year olds. And 81% of children have a fear of being fat. About 1 out of every 2 to 3 adolescent girls have crash dieted, forced themselves to to vomit, used diet pills, or used laxatives. These statistics make me so sad and disappointed in the way our society has valued thinness to the detriment of young women’s health and happiness.

The point of this blog is to spread more awareness on how beauty standards can impact the development of eating disorders. We have to be more careful about how we talk about bodies and about how we describe beauty. They are too many people growing up thinking that they’re not good enough because they don’t fit an unrealistic standard that no one can live up to.

In my next blog, I hope to dive into what some of the things are that we can do to start building more acceptance of our body and fight against the social pressures we face each day. Feel free to share this with a friend or family member who may benefit from this topic.

Sending you so much love,

xx Tori