Scottish Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader and MP for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson, has again urged advertisers and retailers to use models covering a diverse of sizes, ages and shapes in their advertising and media campaigns to reflect the reality of different body shapes and to promote healthy body image.
Co-founder of the Campaign for Body Confidence, Jo is currently chairing a Parliamentary Inquiry into the causes and consequences of body image anxiety.
Her calls come as the retail market floods with health fads and “miracle weight-loss products screaming out at people to diet as part of New Year resolutions. Jo is concerned that this will have a damaging effect on public health.
Jo said:
“After Christmas, the market is awash with dieting advice as people try and lose extra pounds put on over the festive period.
“These drastic diet plans often promote weight loss in an unhealthy way, and the vast majority of people who follow them will end up weighing more than they did before they started the diet.
“It is really important to adopt a healthy lifestyle but I am concerned that this constant bombardment of unrealistic diet advice is having a really negative effect on society, especially young people. Evidence to the Parliamentary Inquiry in December from psychiatrists specialising in eating disorders clearly stated that extreme dieting is most often the trigger for eating disorders developing.
“I have campaigned tirelessly to urge advertisers and retailers to recognise the consequences and damage done by constantly flooding the market with a narrow range of unrealistic images of what the industry deems to be beautiful.
“We need to go further though. We need to empower our young people with the confidence to have a positive body image, happy in their own skin. This needs to be part of our young people’s classroom education. Children are growing up with the idea that body dissatisfaction is a rite of passage, and this needs to stop.
“Liberal Democrats believe in the freedom of companies to advertise but we also believe in the freedom of young people to develop their self-esteem and to be as comfortable as possible with their bodies.
“I want more focus on encouraging young women and men to adopt a healthy lifestyle, and to recognise that their value comes from who they are and what they do, not just what they look like.”
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
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4 Comments
LOVE the fact that the massive advert I can see right now below this article is called “1 Tip to a Tiny Belly”, featuring a cartoon of a skinny woman in just her underwear.
Well the ad I see is for Freeview + HD, from a chain retailer who desperately needs more business.
I also notice that when I access LDV in the Czech Republic, I get Czech ads in these boxes.
But to get down to the general point. The whole idea of a single ideal standard of beauty, handsomeness or attractiveness is ill-founded. Individual human beings choose the person they find attractive from a wide range. And a jolly good thing too! Think what would happen to the gene pool if choosing a partner was constrained to a narrow range of body shapes and types.
i also get Slovak adverts when I access from here.
What is the actual proposal/policy supposed to be though, or do we just have to guess what he/she would do if elected in Scotland? I tend to think that this kind of “problem without a proposal” politics is best left to New Labour.
This comes across as very illiberal to me. Something Labour would do.
If girls are feeling bad then it is down to family friends and society to make them feel better. For the state/Mp’s to come in and start trying to fix things is a bad idea. It will mean that people won’t bother to try and make girls feel better because they will now feel that that is the state’ s job. So this plan will actually have the opposite effect. Just raise publicity on the issue, do interviews, talk about it – but don’t pass legislation, don’t teach it in schools and don’t spend any tax payers money on it.