LAUSR

Over the past four decades, a body of work has emerged, which advocates that the views that children and adolescents hold regarding the body image are moulded in their early childhood. Body image has multiple definitions, but there is a general understanding that it refers to our feelings, attitudes, beliefs and perceptions, which we have about our bodies. Body image cannot be essentialised as it emerges from an active relationship between individual, body and the lived environment. Girl children in western settings are from a very young age exposed to a discourse that being labelled as pretty, cute and generally physically attractive will translate into being happy, clever and wealthy. This is as an ‘appearance culture’ (Tregels & Eggermont 2017), which puts immense importance on the thin body, and thus a thin person is predominantly viewed in a positive light.