MY VIEW

In the 21^st century, body image, fitness, and health are a priority for most of the current population. The overwhelming amount of content we see through media platforms through; images, advertising, and video content have led the general population to be guided into false definitions and standards of beauty and achievable body types.

    This rise in popularity of fitness in combination with the growing popularity of social networks and other forms of media has led to a lack of transparency and significant amounts of misinformation. This is due to the stigmatization of steroid usage, with considerable consequences such as; hair loss, internal organ growth, and the formation of tumors has lead individuals to go significant distances in order to mask and hide their usage of PEDs from the eyes of the public. Another major contributing factor is the growth and size of the industries that body image correlates with. The Acting, Bodybuilding and the Fitness Product industry are globally popular and major companies would face large amounts of backlash if their signed athletes and influencers admitted their steroid use, as they would lose credibility and as a result lose a large amount of public trust and their fanbase. The most prominent example of this “closet PED usage” phenomena are Mike O’hearn, Uzoma Obilor, and Connor Murphy. These three individuals are in constant denial of their steroid usage, even though they display typical signs of steroid abuse ranging from hair loss to abnormal psychological tendencies.

On the contrary, there is the female side of the spectrum. Women are also facing unrealistic beauty standards, social pressure, and social networks are filled with diverse body image standards. In an article written by the Bradley University (Bradley University, 2020), the following is stated about female beauty standards;

Such variations in ideals of beauty often reflect the roles women and men are expected to fulfill in a given society. For instance, in contexts where women are valued mainly for their fertility—their ability to bear and nurture children—often full-bodied women with broad hips and ample breasts are considered the most beautiful. In societies such as Fiji, large bodies are a symbol of one’s status and power. It is not surprising, therefore, that individuals who would be classified as obese in the US are considered the most attractive and desirable members of this culture.

These social standards led to a large increase in the popularity of plastic surgery. The number of individuals with psychological and physical conditions such as; bulimia, mania, and anorexia have also risen in recent years making natural and more healthy approaches obsolete in the eyes of the younger age groups. Women are also constantly bombarded on all media platforms about ideal body types, which also leads to rampant PED usage in the female fitness and health industry.

Overall, the constantly changing landscape of social norms and ideals has led to a staggering rise in false and unnaturally attainable body image standards. A lack of transparency, caused by a fear of reaction and consequence leads to social media influencers, Hollywood actors, and supermodels denying the truth about their diets, lifestyle choices, exercise routines, and natural status to the point where it is near impossible to define what is naturally possible and what is not.

References

Bradley University. (2020). Body & Beauty Standards. Retrieved from www.bradley.edu: https://www.bradley.edu/sites/bodyproject/standards/