What shapes our body image?

Do you want to know how you came to feel and think about your body the way you do? Read about 10 factors that contribute to shaping a body image throughout our lives.
What shapes our body image? | offadiet.com

The human body.

One of the most complex and diverse creations in the universe. Artists have been inspired by its beauty through the ages. Scientists are still far from fully understanding its complexity and its multiple functions and interrelations of its different parts. Yet, sometimes this miraculous and awe-inspiring creation becomes a source of anxiety, embarrassment, and distress. All these negative feelings are caused by how we think and feel about the way our body looks in the mirror and about the way we think it looks to other people. In short, our body image.

Body image is affected by many different factors, and it is shaped through the years with influences from many aspects of a person’s life. But before we delve into this, we need to understand the concept better, with all its characteristics.

Body image characteristics

  • Body image is susceptible to change. Not only throughout a person’s life but even in shorter time periods, as any of the parameters that shape it might change.
  • It is closely related to wellness and personal happiness. A person that feels good inside their body is generally much happier and at peace than someone who is not comfortable with their reflection in the mirror.
  • It can strongly influence mental health. A negative body image is not a mental health issue on its own, but it can create serious psychological distress and become a risk factor for mental health issues.
  • It is closely associated with eating behaviors and physical exercise habits. Depending on the positive or negative opinion we have about our bodies, our reasons for healthy eating or exercise may vary.
  • As a result of the previous two associations of body image, it can trigger the onset of serious eating disorders that can seriously harm physical and mental health.

How body image is shaped

All the factors below have possibly contributed to the current body image of every person, to a smaller or bigger extent.

1. Influences from our family

From a very young age, family members play a crucial role in the way a child begins to shape a mental image of themselves. Their body is an integral part of this image, and it is affected by things such as the way their parents feel about their own bodies, the comments they make on the child’s body or their own beliefs on ideal body shapes.

2. Peers

Friends, schoolmates, colleagues, partners, all the people that we meet throughout our lives can influence the way we think and feel about our bodies the same way the family environment does.

3. Exposure to images of “ideal” bodies

Internet, social media, TV, magazines, film industry, they all become sources of “perfect” images of human bodies. And even if we are at an age and a degree of maturity that we can understand that most of them are retouched or even fake, they can still have power over minds that have body image concerns.

4. Pressure to look a certain way or match an ideal body type

Specific areas of work – like the entertainment industry – or certain sports or hobbies – like figure skating or dancing – may put pressure on a person to look a certain way that is considered appropriate for this field. Body image could suffer as a result of failing to resemble these ideal standards.

5. Personality traits

Sometimes a person may feel an internal pressure to look a certain way regardless of external pressures or influences. A trait like perfectionism for example, could cause a person to seek for the ideal in every aspect of their lives including their body shape. In research, this is usually referred to as the “internalization of the ideal” and it could seriously affect a person’s body image.

What shapes our body image? | offadiet.com

6. Sizeism

A person could have a perfectly healthy and positive body image until at some point in their lives they face discrimination because of their size. This could happen anywhere, at school, at a work environment or at a sports team. Depending on the foundations of the person’s relationship with their body, this could be the start of a body image impairment.

7. Pregnancy

The female body changes drastically during the nine months of pregnancy. Depending on genetics, lifestyle, age and other factors, some of these changes may become permanent and they could affect the way a woman thinks and feels about her body.

8. Transition points in life

During the milestones in a person’s life their eating and exercise habits could change and this could lead in weight fluctuations and differences in things like the way clothes fit or the way they see their reflection in the mirror. This, in turn, could affect their body image.

9. Ageing

As years go by, the body changes naturally and usually not in a favorable way. Sometimes natural changes are enough to affect a person’s view of their body.

10. Chronic illness

Serious and chronic illnesses, like cancer, affect the body in every possible way, and the way it looks is not an exception. The added stress of such an illness could seriously affect the body image and debilitate a person’s wellness and mental health.


What shapes our body image? | offadiet.com


The next time you have a negative thought or feeling about your body, think about all the above influences. Chances are that throughout your life until today your vision of your body has been blurred by more than one of these. Try to remove these impacts and you could find yourself at the beginning of the self-healing road of body acceptance.

And always remember that you are much more than just how your body looks or feels.

You are unique. And that is your most ideal characteristic.


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