Do celebs really affect our body confidence?

Celebrities and how they are portrayed in the media is a long standing argument amongst body confidence advocates. Photoshopping within magazines and even paparazzi pictures have created a false image of the ‘perfect body’ that is damaging the confidence and self- esteem of many around the world.

The subject of body confidence is a hot topic right now, with more celebs coming out in support of limited or no photoshopping on images. Even large publications like Sports Illustrated have started to use a wider variety of models in their photo shoots. However, is all of this publicity around the effect of photoshopping actually making a difference to our self-esteem as consumers?

Hair transplant clinic, Crown Clinic, recently conducted a survey to find out how we really feel and if we actually have been affected by the warped imagery we see day-to-day.

Body confidence and celebrity image

We are constantly bombarded with the image of slim or athletic celebrities on the cover of magazines or across social media. Gossip magazines are forever body shaming celebrities that don’t sport washboard abs and toned limbs. These images and the comments made by the media all create a false idea of the ‘perfect’ body and it’s this idea that is damaging the self-esteem of young men and women throughout the UK.

It’s widely reported that these types of images are the main culprit in the fight for body confidence, however, the recent survey found that 67.3% of the respondents had seen no effect on their confidence due to these influences. There’s no denying that the media has some role to play, but are we simply more aware of how these photos are edited? And is this knowledge helping us to make our own judgements about what we should look like?

Have we been made more aware of how we look? 

Even if you haven’t noticed a direct effect on your own body image, there may be a chance that you have been subconsciously affected.

Out of the 500 people surveyed by Crown, around 32.6% said that they had either been made more aware of how they look or they have felt a distinct change in the way they see themselves. Often, we won’t realise we are thinking negatively about ourselves until we start to feel down or sad whenever we see ourselves in the mirror or try on new clothes in the store.

How can we stop the influence of photoshopping?

Over the last few years, there has definitely been an improvement when it comes to body image and confidence. More information on how much editing goes into the images published in magazines and on social media, we are now more aware of what is real and what is fake.

In this case, knowledge is power and with more information on what is a realistic representation of the human body, the better we’ll be at challenging those negative thoughts.

Disclosure: This is a guest post