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Weighty issues
I'm willing to bet that every woman who read Bridget Jones’s Diary recognised – and related to – the daily weigh-in. When it comes to the detailed monitoring of weight loss and gain, we're as obsessive as a jockey in training for the Derby. You can play that obsession for laughs but, according to psychologists, weighing yourself every day is one of the most obvious signs of a negative body image.
Women's negative image of themselves is so prevalent we tend to overlook it. How many of the following scenes do you recognise? How many have you played a part in?
You meet a friend you haven't seen for a while. 'You look great,' she says. A pause, and then: 'Have you lost weight?' As if looking great and losing weight are automatically related. That's having a negative body image.
It's a boiling hot day. You get the chance to go to the beach, but you don't. Why not? Because beaches mean swimsuits. So you stay in town getting hotter and hotter, missing out on the fun. That's having a negative body image.
You're shopping for a new dress. Are you looking for something pretty, in a colour that matches your eyes or in a fabric that will feel good on your skin? Probably not. A sales assistant once told me that every single woman who steps out of the changing room looks in the mirror, blinks once and asks: 'Does it make me look fat?' That's having a negative body image.
Not going to the party because your hair isn't right, not laughing out loud because you're self conscious about your teeth, not talking to that guy you like because he's too good-looking to be interested in you – in the end, having a negative body image means saying no to things; it's about things not done.
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